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.^^i^.  -  M^  ^  »yQc.. 


A  D  DR  ESS 


University  Progress, 


UKLIVERED    BEFORP;    THE 


National    Teachers'    Association, 

At  'I'mitoti.  .\.  y..     )  •      '-'   "-,  1869, 


JOHN  W.  HOYT,  A.M.,  M.D., 

Pri's-idtui    oj    tli<-     Wisconsin    Academy    of  Sciences.    A  rfs    and   Lett>i<. 

Etc..   Eic. 


2  7  4i     ST 


N  E  \V      \'  O  R  K  : 
D.  Appleton  &  Company,  90,  92  and  94  Grants  Street. 

1870. 


Other    Educational   Works   by  the  Author  of 
THIS  Address. 

Recently    Pahlished: 

REPORT  ON  EDUCATION  (in  Elkopr  and  Amkrica).  Prepared  under 
a  commission  from  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  and  pub- 
lished bv  the  Government. 

Now    in    /^/VAS'.v; 
EDUCATIONAL     ADDRESSES,     SPEECHES     AND     PAPERS; 

EMBKACING  : 
I.     TiiK  Edication  of  Lauor. 
II.     Tfxhnical  Schools  for  the  Technical  Professions. 

The  substance  of  numerous  speeches  made  throughout  Wisconsin,  and 
in  other  Western  States,  in  support  of  the  Morrill  Bill  in  Congress, 
for  the  Endowment  of  Colleges  for  the  Benefit  of  Agriculture  and  the 
Mechanic  Arts. 
IH.     Special  Educational  Needs  of  the  American  People.     An  Address 
delivered  before  the  National  Teachers'  Association,  at  Buflalo,  i86o. 
IV.     Eree  Schools  the  Safeguard  of  a  Free  Government.     A  Speech 
madi^  in  the  Crystal  Palace,  London,  England,  on  the  Fourth  day  of 
July,  1S62. 
V.    The  Trie  Policy  Touching  the  Foundation  and  Organization 
OF  the  Colleges  of  Agriculture    and   the    Mechanic  Arts 
endowed  by  the  Congressional  Act  of  Ji  ly  2,  1S62.     A  Speech 
made  at  Madison,  January,  1866,  in  a  State  Convention  called  to 
consider  this  question  in  the  case  of  Wisconsin. 

VI.     The  True  Idea  of  A  University.     An  Address  delivered   before  tlie 

Missouri  State  Legislature,  January  24,  1S67. 
V^II.     Educational  Standards.     An  Address  before  the  Wisconsin  State 
Teachers'  Association,  delivered  at  Oshkosh,  July,  1869. 
V^III.    The  Progress  of  University   Education.     The  Address  herewith 
Published. 
IX.     A  Great  American  University  a  Leading    Want  of  American 
Education.      Substance   of  a  Report  prepared  by  the   Author   as 
Chairman  of  a  National  Committee  appointed  by  the  National  Teach- 
ers' Association  at  the  Annual  Meeting  held  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey, 
in  August,  1869. 
X.     Professional  Education  in  America. 

XI.     Concerning  Religious  Instruction  in  the  Public  Schools. 
XII.     The  Co-ordering  of  the  Schools  of  the  State. 

XIII.  The  Edication  of  Women.  ' 

XIV.  The  Educational  Duties  and  Powers  of  the  National  Govern- 

ment. A  Paper  prepared  for  the  Sixth  General  Meeting  of  the 
American  Social  Science  Association,  to  be  held  at  Philadelphia  in 
October,  1870. 


fn  Course  of  Preparation: 

I'.DUCATION  IN  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.  A  carefully 
revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  Author's  Government  Report  first  aboVe 
mentioned;  designed  to  present  a  general  and  critical  Survey  of  the 
Educational  Systems  and   Institutions  of  all  Countries. 


V  /^      //V^  6/t: 


y  > 


ADDRESS 


University   Progress, 


DELIVERED    BEFORE   THE 


National  Teachers'  Association, 

At  Trenton,  y.  J.,  August  20,  1869, 


JOHN  W.  HOYT,  A.M.,  M.D., 

President  of  the  Wisconsin  Academy  of  Sciences,  Arts  and  Letters, 
Etc.,  Etc. 


NEW     YORK : 

D.  Appleton  &  Company,  90,  92  and  94  Grand  Street. 

I  S70. 


Entered   according    to   Act  of  Congress,    in  the   year  1S70,    by 

John  W.  Hoyt, 

In  tlie  OlVice  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


A.  Zeese, 

Electrotyper  and  Stereotyper, 

84  Dearborn  St.,  Cliicago. 


LA 
165 


t 
UNIVERSITY  PROGRESS. 


I.    The  University  of  the  Past. 
II.     The  University  of  the  Present. 
III.    The  University  of  the  Future. 


397468 


ADDRESS. 


The  term  university  lias  been  so  variously  applied, 
since  its  first  educational  use,  that  one  is  halt"  war- 
ranted in  grouping  under  it  a  great  variety  of  institu- 
tions, which,  if  compared  with  any  proper  standard, 
would  not  be  entitled  to  inclusion.  And,  on  the  other 
hand,  many  institutions  have  existed  to  which  this 
designation,  although  never  applied,  would  have  been 
entirely  appropriate. 

Such  were  the  early  schools  at  Athens,  in  which 
was  taught  all  that  was  then  known  of  language, 
of  literature,  of  philosophy,  and  of  civil  law  —  in 
which  the  most  gifted  poets,  the  all-persuading  orators, 
the  profoundest  natural  and  ethical  philosophers,  and 
the  unequaled  artists  of  ancient  times  were  teachers 
—  where,  as  pupils,  were  found  troops  of  Greek 
youths  of  various  genius — to  which,  as  pilgrims  to 
some  holy  shrine,  went  those  immortal  Romans,  Cicero, 
Virgil,  Horace,  Lucretius,  and  others,  for  instruction 
and  inspiration,  and  whence,  also,  in  good  time,  they 
bore  away,  as  the  precious  fruit  of  their  study,  that 
learning    and    grace    with   which   they   so   enriched 

Portions  of  the  Address,  as  printed,  were  necessarily  omitted  in  the  deliver}-. 


6  University  Progress. 

and  adorned  their  native  tongue.  Such  were  the 
schools  of  Tarsus,  and  Tergamus,  Berytus,  and  Alex- 
andria; the  later-established  Athensemn  of  Rome, 
where  Quintilian  and  other  distinguished  rhetoricians 
and  philosophers  taught;  the  still  later  Auditorium, 
established  in  the  fourth  century,  at  the  Byzantine 
capital,  by  Constantino,  and  in  which  there  w^ere, 
in  the  succeeding  century,  no  less  than  thirty-one  pro- 
fessors of  grammar,  eloquence,  philosophy,  and  law ; 
and,  finally,  the  Saracenic  schools  of  western  Asia, 
northern  Africa,  and  Spain,  in  w^liich  almost  exclu- 
sively was  kept  alive  the  taper-light  of  learning 
during  the  Dark  Ages,  and  in  which  were  taught  with 
a  zeal  and  completeness  never  known  before,  nor,  in 
Europe,  for  centuries  afterward,  not  only  grammar, 
eloquence  and  philosophy,  but  likewise  geometry, 
algebra,  astronomy,  natural  science,  jurisprudence  and 
medicine.  All  these,  as  being  the  most  advanced  and 
the  most  comprehensive  schools  of  those  times,  were 
universities  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  though  not 
known  by  that  name. 

The  first  use  of  the  term  university  appears  to  have 
been  non-educational,  and  to  have  belonged  to  the 
time  of  Justinian,  when  it  was  synonymous  with  guild, 
being  applied  to  various  associations  of  tradesmen. 
The  idea  entertained  was  purely  the  etymological  one 
of  completeness  ;  and  hence  the  seeming  propriety  of 
its  application  to  whatever  association  or  society  sub- 


The  PiUt  7 

stantially  einhraced  all  the  individuals  of  any  locality 
whose  interests  and  aims  were  common. 

In  this  sense,  the  term  may  have  been  applied  to 
the  original  medical  school  of  Salernum,  or  to  any 
body  of  students  or  professors  united  for  mutual 
advantage,  or  for  the  promotion  and  diffusion  of 
learning.  In  each  of  these  senses,  and  in  both  of 
them,  it  was  used  at  an  early  day  in  the  revival  of 
learning;  and  some  individual  schools  with  a  single 
professional  object,  —  as,  for  instance,  the  law  school 
at  Bologna,  —  numerously  attended  by  students  of 
different  nationalities,  banded  together  for  mutual 
convenience  and  advantage,  have  thus  actually  em- 
braced several  "universities." 

Subsequently,  this  term  was  used  to  designate  the 
entire  grouping  of  associations  of  students,  professors 
and  officers  gathered  together  at  one  place  for  educa- 
tional purposes,  as  at  Paris  and  Bologna.  And 
finally  it  came  to  be  referred  to  the  subjects  taught, 
and  thus  to  imply  an  association  of  taculties  or  schools 
of  superior  rank  and  various  aims — a  signification  it 
still  bears  in  those  countries  where  the  university,  as  a 
distinctive  institution,  has  attained  its  highest  devel- 
opment. 


University  Progress. 


I. 


The  first  universities  (proper)  had  their  origin,  as 
nearly  as  can  be  determined,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eleventh  and  the  early  part  of  the  twelfth  centuries ; 
from  which  time  forward  for  three  hundred  years  the 
number  multiphed,  first  slowly,  and  then  rapidly, 
until,  ere  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  very 
large  proportion  of  those  now  in  existence,  together 
wdth  many  that  have  not  survived,  were  established. 

This  period  of  three  hundred  years,  beginning  with 
the  twelfth  century,  early  in  which  the  great  schools 
at  Paris,  Bologna,  Cambridge  and  Oxford  assumed  a 
form  which  afterward  secured  to  them  the  university 
title,  is  exceedingly  interesting,  for  its  record  em- 
braces the  whole  period  of  what  might  be  properly 
enough  styled  the  romance  of  educational  history. 
The  long,  dreary  period  of  the  Dark  Ages  had  passed; 
the  morning  twilight  of  a  glorious  Renaissance  had 
come,  with  ofiers  of  its  priceless  boon  of  letters, 
science  and  philosophy,  and  kindling  anew  the  ancient 
love  of  learning  in  many  lands.  At  Paris,  taught 
those  remarkable  dialecticians  and  scholastic  philoso- 
phers, "William  of  Champeaux,  Abelard,  and  Peter 
Lombard,  central  lights  of  theology  and  philosophy ; 
while  at  Bologna  stood  forth  the  renowned  Irnerius, 


Tlie  Past  9 

profoundest  master  and  most  brilliant  teacher  of  tlie 
Roman  law.  Their  teachiijfjs  spread  like  a  new 
evanfjel ;  and  soon,  from  north,  and  south,  and  east, 
and  west,  as  it  had  been  a  rallying  to  the  standards 
of  a  new  crasade,  the  intellectual  young  men  —  the 
very  flower  of  Europe  and  even  of  older  Asia  and 
Africa  —  eager  for  a  knowledge  of  the  new  doctrines, 
were  seen  gathering  in  multitudes  to  these  luminous 
centres ;  nntil,  at  Bologna,  they  numbered  ten,  twelve, 
and  twenty  thousand,  and,  at  Paris,  scarcely  less  than 
thirty  thousand,  students.  Gathered  from  diverse 
quarters  of  the  world,  and  tliough  animated  by  the 
same  general  motives,  still  possessed  of  mental  char- 
acteristics and  intellectual  and  social  habits  as  different 
as  their  several  nationalities,  they  naturally  congre- 
gated in  groups,  according  to  their  sympathies,  preju- 
dices and  needs.  These  groups  soon  came  to  be  called 
"nations,"  and  to  bear  the  names  of  such  tribes, 
nations,  or  races  as  either  constituted  the  whole,  or  a 
predominant  portion,  of  the  several  aggregations  tlius 
formed. 

At  Paris,  the  number  of  such  nations  was  four — 
tlie  first  including  all  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  Greek, 
African  and  Asiatic  students,  and  known  as  the 
French  nation ;  the  second  being  known  as  the 
nation  of  Picardy,  including  the  northeast  portion 
of  France  and  the  territory  now  constituting  Belgium 
and   Xetherlands ;  the  third  as  the  nation  of  Xor- 


10  TJniversity  Progress. 

mandj;  and  the  fourth,  under  the  title  of  English 
nation,  embracing  all  students  from  Great  Britain, 
Brittany,  Germany,  and  the  rest  of  the  world.  Each 
nation  had  its  own  statutes,  its  own  president — known 
as  procurator  —  its  own  seal,  as  well  as  its  own  sepa- 
rate buildings  and  its  chapel  for  worship.  The 
executive  head  of  the  whole  institution  —  thus  com- 
posed of  various  nations,  and  afterwards  also  including 
the  four  faculties  of  arts,  law,  medicine  and  theology, 
each  with  its  own  presiding  officer,  known  as  dean  — 
was  the  rector,  who,  together  with  the  deans  and  pro- 
curators, constituted  the  university  council,  to  which 
body  belonged  the  prerogatives  of  legislation  and 
general  management.  The  bishop  of  the  diocese,  and 
the  Abbot  of  St.  Genevieve,  were  university  chancel- 
lors, however,  and  as  such  were  alone  empowered  to 
confer  degrees;  while  superior  to  all,  and  with 
supreme  authority  to  create,  alter  or  amend  the  form 
and  character  of  the  entire  organization,  was  his  holi- 
ness the  Pope. 

The  university  of  Bologna  mainly  differed  from 
that  of  Paris  in  the  number  of  the  nations  embraced, 
and  in  the  more  democratic  character  of  the  univer- 
sity organization ;  the  ultimate  governing  power 
being  with  the  students,  by  whom  the  academical 
officers  were  elected,  and  by  whose  appointees  changes 
could  be  made  in  the  general  statutes  every  twenty 
years.      The    teachers    and    students    were    divided 


The  Past  11 

first  into  nations  of  Italy  (known  as  citra-montanes,) 
and  foreigners  (wlio  were  called  ultra-montanes). 
Rut  these  were  aj^ain  divided  —  the  citni-inontanes 
into  seventeen  nations,  and  the  ultra-niontanes  into 
eighteen.  Each  nation  had  its  presiding  officer,  who 
—  except  in  the  case  of  the  German  nation,  whose  two 
presiding  officers  bore  the  title  of  procurator  —  was 
known  as  counselor.  These  thirty-four  counselors 
and  two  procurators  elected  the  presiding  officer  of 
the  university  or  rector,  to  whom  all  the  professors 
were  subordinated,  and  who,  with  his  council  of  coun- 
selors and  procurators,  was  clothed  with  large  general 
powers,  including  suj)reme  civil  and  even  criminal 
jurisdiction  in  all  matters  involving  members  of  the 
university  —  a  feature  copied  by  nearly  all  the  univer- 
sities subsequently  established  in  other  countries. 
Here,  also,  there  were  two  chancellors,  endowed  with 
sole  authority  to  confer  degrees  and  honors. 

During  this  early  period  (the  twelfth  century,)  the 
English  schools  at  Cambridge  and  Oxford  likewise 
attained  considerable  importance.  Schools  of  the 
monastic  type  had  long  existed  at  those  places  —  some 
historians  say  as  early  as  the  eighth  century — but  it 
was  not  until  the  example  of  the  Paris  institution  had 
been  set  them  that  they  took  on  the  character  of  \ini- 
versities.  They  were  modelled  after  the  university  of 
Paris,  but  the  students  had  even  less  voice  in  the  gov- 
ernment than  in  that  institution. 


12  University  Progress. 

It  may  well  be  supposed  —  and  history  establishes 
the  fact  —  that  in  such  an  age,  and  among  such  multi- 
tudes of  hot-blooded  young  men,  some  of  them  repre- 
sentatives of  the  aristocracy,  and  others  pinched  by 
want,  yet  proud,  sensitive  and  ambitious,  frequent 
personal  and  "  national  "  difficulties  would  arise,  such 
as  could  be  only  settled  by  the  arbitrament  of  war. 
Sometimes  these  quarrels  were  unorganized  and  pro- 
miscuous, like  the  collision  of  mobs ;  often  they  were 
duel  combats,  as  between  single  knights  of  stately 
chivalry ;  and  again  cases  are  recorded  in  which  hos- 
tile nations,  numbering  thousands  each,  withdrew  to 
the  neighboring  fields  and  fought  regular  pitched 
battles  with  bows  and  arrows,  best  weapons  of  those 
early  times. 

At  a  later  and  yet  early  day,  the  foundation  of 
"  halls  "  and  "  colleges  "  commenced,  with  the  view 
of  supplying  accommodations  for  the  thousands  of 
tliirsty  students  who  gathered  about  the  well-spring 
of  the  university.  They  were  not  colleges  in  the 
modern  sense,  but  great  boarding  establishments,  with 
such  regulations  as  to  study  and  intellectual  improve- 
ment, under  the  direction  of  one  or  more  competent 
persons,  as  were  calculated  to  further  the  main  objects 
of  individual  and  university  advancement.  The 
foundations  for  these  colleges  were  granted  by  wealthy 
friends  of  learning,  whose  donations  were  often  suffi- 
ciently large  to  provide  not  only  the  necessary  build- 


The  Past.  18 

ings  and  equipments,  but  also  a  greater  or  less  number 
—  sometimes  several  bundred  —  free  supports  for 
meritorious  but  indigent  young  men,  otberwise  unable 
to  secure  tbe  blessings  (»f  education. 

Since  the  art  of  printing  had  not  yet  been  discov- 
ered, all  instruction  given  in  those  early  times  was, 
of  necessity,  by  lectures ;  and,  as  tbe  students  were 
of  many  nationalities,  there  was  need  of  a  common 
language.  Thus  the  Latin  came  into  universal  use,  as 
the  medium,  not  only  of  instruction,  but  of  daily 
intercourse  among  all  the  members  of  the  university; 
which  office,  I  may  add,  it  continued  to  fulfill  in  like 
conditions  for  at  least  four  hundred  years. 

The  range  of  studies  was,  of  course,  quite  limited ; 
nevertheless,  the  period  of  study  requisite  to  the 
higher  degrees  was  many  times  longer  than  at  present, 
namely,  three  and  a  half  years  for  the  baccalaureate, 
seven  years  for  the  degree  of  master,  and  seven  to 
nine  years  more  for  the  degree  of  doctor ;  making  a 
total  of  some  fourteen  to  sixteen  years.  The  degrees 
of  master  and  doctor  were  at  first  synonymous,  but 
the  former  came  at  length  to  be  confined  to  the  faculty 
of  arts,  and  the  latter  to  the  professional  faculties  —  a 
difference  of  application  still  sanctioned  by  all  the 
present  universities  in  which  the  faculty  of  general 
studies  is  a  faculty  of  arts.  The  significance  of  either 
degree  depended  on  the  fact  that  he  upon  whom  it 
was  conferred  was  understood  to  have  qualified  him- 


14  University  Progress. 

self  for  the  work  of  the  teacher ;  nay,  more,  in  most 
universities,  if  not  in  all,  it  was  conferred  upon  such 
only  as  bound  themselves  to  teach,  for  a  limited  time, 
whatever  their  ulterior  designs.  They  were  to  be 
actual  magistri  and  doctores^  and  the  degree  in  either 
case  was  their  license.  When  a  master  or  doctor  pro- 
posed to  teach  any  particular  subject,  and  was  assigned 
to  that  work  by  the  university,  he  became  a  professor. 
The  compensation  of  those  who  taught  came  in  the 
form  of  fees  paid  by  students. 

Thus  matters  stood  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century. 

The  thirteenth  century  was  signaUzed  not  more  by 
the  continued  and  growing  success  of  the  four  great 
universities  already  established,  their  development  by 
the  addition  of  new  faculties,  and  the  commencement 
in  England  of  college  foundations,  destined  eventually 
to  supersede  the  halls  —  and  unhappily  required  to  be 
administered  in  the  interest  of  the  dominant  church  — 
than  by  the  founding  of  six  new  universities,  to- wit : 
those  founded  at  Kaples  (in  1224),  at  Padua  (1228),  at 
Salamanca  (1240),  at  Ooimbra,  Macerata,  and  Perugia 
(1290). 

The  first  three  of  these  were  destined  to  attain  a  dis- 
tinction only  second  to  that  of  the  universities  of  Paris 
and  Bologna,  and  to  the  first  is  awarded  the  honor  of 
having  led  all  the  universities  in  the  systematic  division 
of  the  instruction  into  faculties,  and  a  distribution  of 


The  Past.  15 

studies  into  annual  courses.  This  period  was  also 
distiiiguislied  by  a  decline  of  interest  in  the  general 
studies  now  known  as  the  arts,  and  a  disproportionate 
advanceinont  of  the  professional  faculties  —  in  Italy, 
of  jurisprudence  and  medicine ;  and  in  France,  of 
theology  and  philosophy.  So  marked  was  this  mon- 
opoly of  interest  by  the  faculty  of  law  in  Italy,  that 
Roger  Bacon,  most  learned  man  of  those  times,  was 
constrained  to  raise  his  voice  in  earnest  and  eloquent 
protest  against  the  educational  character  and  tenden- 
cies of  the  age  —  the  tendency  especially  of  the  juris- 
prudence of  the  Italians  to  do  away  with  the  study  of 
"  wisdom  "  (philosophy,  theology  and  science),  and  so 
undermine  the  foundations  of  both  church  and  state. 
!N^or  did  he  content  himself  with  this  solemn  protest ; 
he  also  made  resolute  endeavors  to  establish  the  high 
claims  of  inductive  philosophy  as  the  only  ground- 
work of  a  true  science.  Nevertheless,  jurisprudence 
was  deaf  to  all  Bacon's  protests,  and  as  late  as  1262 
claimed  a  large  proportion  of  the  20,000  students  then 
at  Bologna. 

Bacon  might  with  equal  propriety  have  protested 
against  the  proclivities  and  practices  of  tlie  university 
of  Paris,  where  not  even  law  was  yet  established,  and 
where  the  so-called  philosophy  of  the  schoolmen  so 
absorbed  the  attention  and  interest,  that  this  philoso- 
phy came  to  be  known  in  style  as  the  "  style  of  Paris." 

It   was   during  this  period  that  the  university  of 


16  University  Progress. 

Oxford  attained  so  remarkable  a  fame  that  thousands 
of  students  (some  historians  say  thirty  thousand)  were 
gathered  there  from  every  part  of  Europe ;  so  that 
bastions  in  the  city  walls  had  to  be  rented  for  their 
use.  It  was  also  in  the  latter  part  of  this  century  that 
Bologna  originated  the  practice  of  paying  stated 
salaries  to  professors,  and  that  boards  of  examiners 
were  appointed  —  by  papal  bull  for  theology,  and  by 
imperial  decree  for  law  and  medicine. 

Hitherto  the  university  movement  had  been  confined 
to  the  Latin  states  and  England.  But  at  length  the 
fire  kindled  in  the  less  easily  ignited  —  and  really  less 
well  prepared  —  German  mind,  and  a  work  com- 
menced in  Austria  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  which  gradually  extended  not  only  into  all 
the  German  states,  but  even  into  Scandinavia;  while 
Italy  became  more  zealous,  as  time  advanced,  and 
added  yet  six  other  universities  to  the  splendid  galaxy 
already  hers ;  and  France  founded  those  of  Mont- 
pellier,  Toulouse  and  Orleans.  Rome  led  off  in  1303, 
followed  in  succession  by  Orleans  in  1309,  Pisa  in 
1338,  Polish  Cracow  in  134:3,  Yalladolid  in  1346, 
Prague  and  Yienna  in  1348  and  1365,  Pa  via  —  after 
a  while  so  illustrious  —  and  Sienna  in  1361,  Heidel- 
berg in  1387,  Ferrara  and  Palermo  in  1391  and  1394, 
and  finally  by  Erfurt  in  1392. 

No  single  century  has  done  a  nobler  work  than  this, 
and  none  has  been  more  distinguished  for  the  bril- 
liancy of  its  educational  history. 


The  Past.  17 

Spain,  no  longer  content  to  send  her  aspiring  youth 
to  Paris  and  Bologna,  had  directed  her  energies  for 
more  than  half  a  century  to  her  own  Salamanca,  and 
was  now  rewarded  by  seeing  that  young  university  an 
acknowledged  rival  of  these  renowned  schools,  with 
its  10,000  to  12,000  students,  gathered  from  her  own 
provinces,  and  from  many  other  countries  north  and 
south  of  the  Mediterranean  sea.  Eager  thousands 
still  flocked  to  the  early  Italian,  French  and  English 
centres,  and  thousands  more  to  the  newer  universities. 

Nor  were  these  the  chief  educational  glories  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  That  for  which  it  will  be  most 
gratefully  remembered  is  tlie  fact  that  it  constituted 
the  first  period  of  the  renaissance  of  letters,  begun 
and  so  far  advanced  by  those  divine  sons  of  Italy^ 
Dante,  Petrarch  and  Bocaccio,  whose  own  matchless 
works,  and  whose  reproduction  in  their  purity  of  the 
works  of  the  greatest  Greek  and  Latin  authoi*s,  did 
more  than  all  else  to  turn  the  intellectual  forces  of 
those  times  from  the  comparatively  fruitless  channel 
of  scholasticism  into  the  more  profitable  one  of  sound 
classical  culture. 

Nevertheless,  it  stands  as  a  remarkable  fact  that 
the  universities  of  Italy  were  among  the  very  last  to 
become  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  renaissance  of 
letters,  whose  work  was  begun,  and  for  a  long  time 
carried  on,  outside  of  the  university  halls.  The 
hmnanities  were  taught  in  private  schools,  but  all  the 

2 


18  .    TJiiiversUy  Progress. 

teaching  officially  authorized  in  Italy  was  ruled  by 
Averroism,  not  only  during  the  fourteenth,  but  also 
durine:  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  —  ruled 
in  the  face  of  progress  everywhere  else,  in  spite  of  the 
humanities  and  the  Cartesian  philosophy,  which  by 
this  time  had  found  some  footing  in  nearly  all  the  uni- 
versities of  the  world,  and  even  in  spite  of  the  Catholic 
church,  with  whose  doctrines  it  was,  of  course,  not  in 
harmony. 

The  fifteenth  century  was  marked  by  a  still  further 
and  wider  difiiision  of  the  love  of  learning,  especially 
of  the  classics,  now  finding  welcome  in  nearly  all  the 
countries  of  Europe,  and  by  the  consequent  establish- 
ment of  a  great  number  of  new  universities  ;  including, 
among  those  which  have  survived  to  this  day,  those 
of  Wurzburg,  Bavaria,  founded  in  1403 ;  Leipsic,  in 
1409 ;  Yalencia,  Spain,  in  1410 ;  St,  Andrews,  Scot- 
land, in  1411 ;  Turin,  in  1412 ;  Rostock,  Mecklenburg- 
Schwerin,  in  1419 ;  Parma,  Italy,  in  1422 ;  Lou  vain, 
Belgium,  in  1426  ;  Florence,  in  1438  ;  Catania,  Italy, 
in  1445 ;  Glasgow,  Scotland,  in  1450 ;  Greifswalde, 
Prussia,  in  1456 ;  Freiburg,  Baden,  1457 ;  Basel, 
Switzerland,  in  1459 ;  Pesth,  Hungary,  in  1465 ; 
Saragossa,  Spain,  in  1474 ;  Upsal,  Sweden,  in  1476 ; 
Tiibingen,  "Wurtcmburg,  in  1477;  Copenhagen,  in 
1479  ;  and  Aberdeen,  Scotland,  in  1494.  By  the  close 
of  tills  century,  universities  had  so  increased  in  num- 


Tlic  Pad.  19 

ber  that  Italy  possessed  19,  France  15,  Germany, 
Netherlands,  Austria  an<l  Switzerhmd  15,  Spain  and 
Portu<ijal  9,  England  2,  Scotland  3,  Hungary,  Poland, 
Dennnirk  and  Sweden  1  each  —  in  all,  CT.  As  to 
condition,  those  of  Italy,  France,  Spain  and  England 
were  still  foremost,  although  Cambridge  and  Oxford 
showed  symptoms  of  weakness,  and  so  declined  in  the 
number  of  students  that  many  of  the  halls  or  ho^?tels 
were  pretty  much  deserted. 

The  Grerman  universities,  too  closely  patterned  after 
French  and  Italian  models,  and  but  poorly  endowed, 
were  destined  to  struggle  long  in  feebleness,  and  to 
exert  but  little  influence  on  the  mind  and  life  of  the 
German  people.  Theology  was  the  all-controlling 
element  in  them,  as  law  was  in  Italy,  and  but  few  of 
the  great  scholars  of  Germany  were  connected  with 
them.  Habits  of  idleness  and  dissoluteness  prevailed 
to  a  fearful  extent,  and  even  duels,  riots,  and  disgrace- 
ful collisions  among  the  students,  and  between  them 
and  the  people  of  the  localities,  were  very  common, 
and  continued  to  be  so  until  a  much  later  day. 

Two  important  features  of  the  German  universities 
were  distinctive:  the  extraordinary  privileges  and 
civil  powers  granted  them  by  many  of  the  gc^vern- 
ments  under  whose  patronage  they  were  establislied, 
and  the  policy  early  adopted  by  nearly  if  not  all  of 
them  as  to  the  mode  of  providing  the  corps  of  instruc- 
tors. 


20  University  Progress 

The  civil  privileges  and  powers  referred  to  were 
those  of  constituting  within  themselves,  by  appoint- 
ment and  election,  a  regular  court  for  the  trial  of  all 
members  of  the  university,  whether  students,  profes- 
sors, or  the  families  of  these,  for  violations  either  of 
the  university  statutes  or  the  laws  of  the  land.  The 
university  was  in  fact  a  sort  of  independent  constitu- 
tional government,  with  its  own  rights  and  preroga- 
tives of  the  most  grave  and  serious  character,  which 
even  the  state  could  not  invade  or  disregard. 

The  other  distinctive  feature  was  the  gradation  of 
teachers  in  the  several  faculties,  and  the  adoption  of  a 
system  of  promotions  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
rank,  with  a  view  to  insure,  first,  a  sufficiently  large 
instructional  force  to  do  the  work  of  teaching ;  secondly, 
of  securing  the  best  talent  that  could  be  developed ;  and, 
thirdly,  of  securing  such  best  available  instruction  at 
the  greatest  economy  to  the  university  funds,  which 
in  most  cases  were  very  small.  Such  professors  as 
were  appointed  to  give  the  regular  and  necessary 
courses  of  instruction  were  denominated  ordinary  pro- 
fessors {professores  ordinarii).  The  remainder  of  the 
work  of  instruction,  and  in  many  of  the  more  prosper- 
ous universities  a  large  proportion  of  the  whole,  was 
done  by  extraordinary  professors  {professores  extra- 
ordinarii)^  and  private  teachers  {privat-docenten),  all 
of  whom  were  regarded  as  ordinary  or  full  professors 
in  prospect  —  professors  in  the  formative  stage.    These 


Die  Past.  21 

peciiHarities  in  the  organization  of  the  German  uni- 
versity still  characterize  it,  and  will  be  spoken  of  more 
in  detail  further  on. 

Afterwards,  most  other  European  countries  also 
adopted  this  system  more  or  less  fully  ;  though,  in  its 
completeness,  it  has  always  been  a  German  feature 
of  university  education. 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  the  work  of  founding  new 
universities  still  continued  with  unabated  zeal.  The 
most  important  of  the  new  institutions  were  those 
established  at  "Wittenberg,  in  1502 ;  at  Seville,  Spain, 
in  1504;  at  Marburg,  llesse-Cassel,  in  1527;  at  Gra- 
nada and  Santiago,  Spain,  in  1531  and  1532 ;  at 
Konigsburg,  Prussia,  in  1544;  at  Messing,  Italy,  in 
1548;  at  Jena,  Saxe-Weiniar,  in  1558;  at  Leyden, 
Ilolland,  in  1575;  at  Oviedo,  Spain,  in  1580;  at 
Olmutz,  Austria,  in  1584 ;  at  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  in 
1582 ;  at  Gratz,  Austria,  in  1586 ;  and  at  Dublin, 
Ireland,  in  1591.  But  the  distinguishing  educational 
feature  of  this  age  was  the  extraordinary  fruit  pro- 
duced by  the  universities  previously  founded.  Though 
their  teaching  had  but  slowly  improved,  the  more 
orderly  and  systematic  manner  of  it,  as  well  as  the 
wider  range  it  took,  and  the  nearness  of  relation  into 
which  it  brought  the  minds  of  their  students,  through 
the  medium  of  the  classics,  now  largely  substituted 
for,  or  perhaps  I  should  rather  say  added  to,  the  subtle- 


22  University  Progress. 

ties  of  dialectics,  for  which  the  schools  had  hitherto 
been  chiefly  remarkable,  —  these  had  a  powerful  influ- 
ence upon  the  intellect  of  those  times,  and  contributed 
vastly  more  than  we  are  wont  to  suppose  to  that 
development  and  increased  power  which  enabled  so 
many  leading  men  of  that  brilliant  era  to  break  the 
shackles  of  mere  authority  and  advance  into  the 
realms  of  independent  thought.  If  we  pronounce  the 
names  of  but  a  few  of  the  great  men  whom  the  uni- 
versities of  that  period  gave,  not  to  Europe  alone  and 
the  needy  age  in  which  they  lived,  but  to  the  world 
and  to  all  future  time,  behold  what  a  roll  of  honor ! 
Luther,  educated  at  the  university  of  Erfurt ;  Melanc- 
thon,  at  Heidelberg ;  Calvin,  at  Paris  and  Orleans ; 
Pope  Gregory  XIII.,  at  Bologna ;  Copernicus,  at  Cra- 
cow ;  Erasmus,  at  Paris  and  Turin ;  Tom  Moore  and 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  at  Oxford ;  Cranmer,  Latimer, 
Ridley,  Ben  Johnson,  Sir  Edward  Coke,  Spenser  and 
Francis  Bacon,  at  Cambridge ;  John  Knox,  at  Glas- 
gow ;  Tycho  Brahe,  at  Copenhagen,  and  Kepler,  at 
Tubingen  —  a  grand  constellation  of  the  most  illus- 
trious divines,  reformers,  poets,  sages,  jurists,  explo- 
rers, philosophers  and  astronomers,  established  in  the 
world's  intellectual  firmament  forever ! 

If,  now,  we  again  draw  the  curtain,  and  look  in 
upon  the  seventeenth  century,  we  shall  find,  in  the 
midst  of  the  tumults,  wars  and  political  upheavals,  an 


The  Past.  23 

equal  activity  in  the  intellectual  and  educational 
world;  the  schoolmen,  theologians,  and  philosophers 
in  the  most  active,  uuintermitting  and  irrepressible 
dispute ;  the  Italian  universities,  —  already  too  numer- 
ous but  yet  being  multiplied  by  the  founding  of  two 
others,  viz.,  at  Cagliari  in  1606,  and  at  Urbino  in  1671, 
—  though  not  so  neglectful  of  the  humanities,  yet  still 
partial  to  jurisprudence,  and  beginning  to  feel  the 
induence  of  the  papal  reaction  upon  the  aggressive 
power  of  the  Reformation ;  the  German  universities 
still  so  inferior  that  a  majority  of  the  ambitious  youth 
prefer  to  study  in  foreign  countries,  yet  increasing  in 
number  by  the  establishment  of  several  new  ones, 
including  those  founded  at  Giessen  in  1607,  at  Inn- 
spruck  in  1672,  and  at  Halle  in  1694,  and  yet  gaining 
withal  in  vigor  and  force,  under  the  stimulus  of  the 
fiery  theological  disputes  of  which  they  were  the 
principal  centres;  the  universities  of  Spain,  like  those 
of  Italy,  repressing  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  like  them 
showing  evidences  of  decline  no  less  marked  than  the 
evidences  of  progress  in  Germany ;  the  French  uni- 
versities losing  their  partiality  for  theology  and 
devoting  increased  attention  to  philosophy  and  to 
physical  and  metaphysical  science ;  the  English  uni- 
versities less  disturbed  at  first,  but  afterwards  pro- 
foundly agitated  by  the  political  and  religious  troubles 
that  marked  the  closing  decades  of  that  eventful 
period,  losing  more  and  more  of  their  monastic  char- 


24  University  Progress. 

acter,  abolishing  their  hostels,  and  building  colleges 
in  their  stead ;  the  Dutch  founding  the  university  of 
Groningen  in  1614,  and  again  one  at  Utrecht  in  1636, 
both  flourishing  still ;  Sweden  establishing  her  second, 
at  Doi*pat,  in  1632,  and  her  third  at  Lund  in  1668,  pat- 
terning again,  as  in  the  case  of  Upsal,  after  the  original 
"national"  models;  Russia  beginning  her  university 
work  by  the  suppression  of  the  university  of  Dorpat, 
sole  institution  of  the  kind  within  the  limits  of  her 
empire  !  and  America,  in  the  wilds  of  the  new  western 
hemisphere,  and  but  sixteen  years  after  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrims,  laying  the  foundation  of  her  first  uni- 
versity, at  Cambridge.  At  the  older  universities  we 
shall  find  a  scarcely  less  number  than  in  the  preceding 
century  of  young  men  of  surpassing  genius  preparing, 
by  a  thorough  discipline  of  their  powers,  for  successful 
graj)ple  with  the  great  problems  of  the  material  and 
spiritual  universe.  Among  them  are  Descartes,  Mil- 
ton and  Newton,  at  Cambridge ;  Sir  Matthew  Hale 
and  Locke,  at  Oxford ;  Galileo,  at  Pisa  and  Padua ;  and 
Leibnitz,  at  Leipsic.  At  Leipsic  university,  in  1687, 
we  also  find  Thomasius  boldly  making  his  innovation 
upon  the  hitherto  invariable  rule  of  lectures  in  the 
Latin  language  by  teaching  jurisprudence  to  his 
fellow  countrymen  in  their  own  rugged  vernacular. 

The  eighteenth  century  opened  upon  a  new  face  of 
things.     The  period  of  romance  had  passed.     Schol- 


The  Past.  25 

aaticisin  had  so  longj  ceased  to  flourish,  and  had  been 
so  universally  succeeded  l)y  the  classics,  that  its  fasci- 
nations and  its  somewhat  uselul,  but  more  generally 
fantastic,  achievements  were  remembered  as  a  dream, 
or,  at  most,  read  as  a  part  of  the  great  history  of  phi- 
losophy. The  solid  foundations  were  preparing  for 
the  present  noble  superstructure  of  the  meta])hysical, 
physical,  and  natural  sciences.  Freedom  of  inquiry 
and  freedom  of  discussion,  valiantly  maintained  in  the 
face  of  persecution  and  death,  during  the  struggle  of 
the  Reformation,  were  now  firmly  established.  It  is 
true  that  the  glory  of  Bologna,  and  Paris,  and  Sala- 
manca, and  Louvain,  was  a  glory  of  the  past ;  that 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  so  long  the  pride  of  England, 
and  the  nursing  mothers  of  her  great  men,  had  suc- 
cumbed to  a  corrupt  state  church,  had  been  fettered  and 
stranjjlod  in  the  name  of  reliijion ;  that  learning  Ian- 
guished ;  that  life  in  most  of  the  colleges  had  become 
indolent  and  vicious ;  and  that  the  English  universities, 
dead  to  all  ideas  of  duty  or  of  glory,  and  controlled 
almost  wholly  by  the  basest  spirit  of  religious  and 
political  prejudice,  had  ceased  to  cherish  the  literary, 
philosophic,  and  scientific  spirit,  for  which  they  were 
once  justly  famous,  and  had  become  the  foster  mothers 
of  bigotry  and  irreligion  instead.  It  is  also  undeniable 
that,  in  all  the  Latin  states  of  Europe,  the  efiects  of  the 
great  reaction  from  the  liberalism  of  the  Reformation  on 
the  development  of  the  university  faculties  of  letters, 


26  University  Progress. 

philosophy,  and  science  were  still  plainly  visible.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  universities  of  Germany,  hith- 
erto resting  under  the  contempt  of  the  best  scholars 
of  the  times,  had  meantime  become  filled  with  the 
love  of  profound  culture  and  the  spirit  of  free  investi- 
gation, and  so  had  fairly  entered  upon  that  career  of 
development  which  was  destined,  within  another  hun- 
dred years,  to  secure  to  them  an  acknowledged  place 
in  the  very  front  rank  of  the  foremost  schools  of  the 
world. 

During  the  first  thirty  or  forty  years,  Halle  had  the 
lead.  It  was  especially  strong  in  theology,  of  which 
there  were  sometimes  nearly  a  thousand  students. 
But  in  1737  was  founded  the  university  of  Gottingen, 
with  the  gift  of  a  rich  endowment  that  enabled  it  to 
employ  the  most  eminent  men  of  learning  in  Ger- 
many, as  professors,  as  well  as  to  form  at  an  early  day 
one  of  the  largest  and  most  valuable  university  libra- 
ries in  Europe,  and,  more  than  all,  with  the  priceless 
boon  of  freedom  —  advantages  enjoyed  by  none  of  its 
predecessors  or  cotemporaries,  and  which  enabled  it  at 
a  very  early  period  in  its  development  to  gain  the 
ascendancy  it  maintained  for  nearly  three-quarters  of 
a  century  over  all  other  German  schools.  Meantime, 
Breslau  (1702),  Erlangen  (1743),  Lamberg  (1784),  and 
some  others  less  important,  of  Germany,  together  with 
Camerino  (1727),  and  Sassari  (1766),  of  Italy,  had 
been   established,   and   Russia  had  laid   (1755)   the 


The  Past.  27 

fonndation  for  her  iirst  university,  at  Moscow.  The 
arts  tiK'ulty  of  Cuinbridj^e  had  become  ])re-einiiiently 
iiuithematical,  and,  one  by  one,  all  the  professional 
faculties  in  both  Canibrid<;e  and  Oxford  had  fallen 
into  decay  or  migrated  to  London.  In  the  new 
world,  upon  the  recommendation  of  George  Clinton, 
Governor  of  New  York,  a  new  practical  application 
of  the  term  university  had  been  nuule  by  the  creation 
(in  1787)  of  the  University  of  New  York,  made  to 
consist  simply  of  a  board  of  regents,  charged  with  the 
general  supervision  and  numagement  of  most  of  the 
academies  and  colleges  of  the  state. 

The  fruits  of  intellectual  culture  had,  by  this  time, 
become  so  abundant  in  Europe  that  it  were  vain  to 
attempt,  within  small  compass,  to  name  the  distin- 
guished men  whom  the  universities  prepared  during 
the  eighteenth  century  for  the  service  of  mankind  and 
for  immortality  in  history.  A  mere  glance  at  the 
university  registers  of  this  period  shows  Emanuel 
Swedenborg  to  have  been  a  student  at  tjpsala ;  Klop- 
tock  at  Jena ;  Ilorseley,  Blackstone,  and  Fox  at 
Oxford ;  Goldsmith  at  Dublin,  Edinburgh  and  Ley- 
den  ;  Hume  at  Edinburgh ;  the  Jussicus  at  Paris  and 
Montpellier ;  Linnneus  at  Lund  and  Upsal ;  Galvani  at 
Bologna ;  Lavoisier  at  Paris  ;  Buffon  at  Dijon  ;  Boir- 
have  at  Leyden ;  Wieland,  Hegel  and  Schelling  at 
Tubingen  ;  Lessing  at  Leipsic ;  Fichte  at  Jena,  Leipsic 
and  Wittenberg ;  Scldeiermacher  at  Halle ;  Goethe  at 


28  University  Progress. ' 

Leipsic  and  Strasburg ;  Adam  Smith  at  Glasgow  and 
Oxford ;  Pitt  at  Cambridge  ;  and  Immanuel  Kant  and 
Herder  at  Konigsberg  ;  together  with  a  midtitude  of 
others,  scarcely  less  distinguished  than  these,  in  all  the 
departments  of  learning  and  human  activity. 

The  nineteenth  century  came  as  the  dawn  of  a  new 
era,  destined  to  be  characterized  by  changes  even 
more  remarkable  than  the  substitution  of  classical  cul- 
ture for  the  fantasies  of  the  early  scholastic  philosophy 
—  changes  still  in  progress,  and  daily  assuming  greater 
and  greater  importance.  It  opened  with  Konigsberg 
in  the  lead.  The  remarkable  teachings  and  published 
works  of  a  single  professor — Immanuel  Kant — made  it 
the  most  conspicuous  university  in  Europe.  Disciples 
of  the  new  philosopher  were  soon  found  in  all  the  uni- 
versities ;  so  that,  while  he  lived,  Konigsberg  was  a 
luminary  that  fastened  the  eyes  of  all  Europe.  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  showed  the  fruits  of  the  intellectual 
agitation  of  the  times  —  due  so  largely  to  the  French 
Revolution  —  in  the  revival  of  learning  and  education. 
Oxford  began  to  be  less  exclusively  classical,  and 
Cambridge  less  predominantly  mathematical  than 
hitherto,  since  the  impress  put  upon  it  by  Xewton. 
Examinations,  so  long  a  mere  farce,  were  made  more 
effective ;  "  class-list,"  with  its  powerful  stimulation, 
was  instituted ;  and  both  of  these  venerable  institutions 
again  assumed  a  position  of  influence  among  the  Intel- 


The  Pad.  29 

lectual  forces  of  the  nation.  So,  likewise,  there  was 
appiireTit  throughout  central  and  northern  Europe  the 
growth  of  a  more  scientitic  spirit,  and  even  a  resolute 
purpose  in  some  quarters  to  free  the  university  from 
the  fetters  of  bigotry  and  mere  authority,  by  which  it 
had  so  long  been  restrained  from  entering  upon  its 
legitimate  career. 

Then  followed  those  desolating  wars  that  ravaged 
the  continent,  seriously  deranging  nearly  all  the  uni- 
versities, and,  by  reason  of  political  and  territorial 
changes,  as  well  as  by  waste  of  property  and  the  long- 
continued  disturbance  of  social  order,  resulting  in  the 
enfeebled  condition,  frequent  removal,  and  final  sup- 
pression of  several  of  the  German  universities  ;  includ- 
ing those  of  Helmstadt,  Erfurt,  Kinteln,  Frankfort-on- 
the-Oder,  Duisburg,  TVittenburg,  Mainz,  Bamburg, 
Cologne,  Paderborn,  Munster,  Dillingen,  and  Salzburg. 
"While  in  France  the  whole  system  of  university  educa- 
tion, pretty  much  broken  up  during  the  Revolution, 
was  reconstructed  in  1808  by  Napoleon,  who,  enlarging 
upon  the  plan  of  Governor  Clinton,  consolidated  all 
the  schools  of  the  empire,  under  the  title  of  the  "  Uni- 
versity of  France."  The  whole  country  was  divided 
into  seventeen  districts,  in  each  of  which  there  was  an 
academy^  with  its  rector  and  council  in  authority  over 
all  secondary  and  primary  schools  of  the  district,  and 
its  faculties  two  or  more,  according  to  the  circum- 
stances.      Subsequently  —  during    the    interregnum 


30  University  Progress. 

between  the  first  and  present  empire  —  the  nnmber 
of  districts  and  academies  was  increased  to  twenty-six. 
But  the  general  cast  of  the  system  remained  unchanged 
until  ]^apoleon  III  practically  merged  the  "uni- 
versity "  into  the  present  imperial  council,  with  the 
minister  of  public  instruction  at  its  head. 

In  the  other  continental  countries,  no  very  notable 
changes  in  the  university  system  followed  the  plow- 
share of  universal  war.  But  in  England  there  came, 
soon  after,  a  revival  of  religious  bigotry  and  intoler- 
ance, still  further  narrowing  the  scope  of  the  ancient 
universities,  and  tightening  those  always  absurd 
and  now  monstrous  religious  tests,  through  whose 
agency  the  freest  and  best  minds  of  the  nation  were 
doomed  to  exclusion  —  through  whose  agency,  indeed, 
those  very  institutions  that  might  have  been  the  most 
potential  and  illustrious  in  Europe  were  maintained 
at  a  level  lower  than  those  of  any  other  country,  nay, 
in  the  condition  of  being,  not  universities  at  all,  but 
mere  high  denominational  schools,  kept  up  in  the 
interest  of,  and  controlled  by,  the  English  church. 

But  the  planting  of  new  universities  still  went  on. 
Hussia  founded  universities  at  Kasan  and  Kharkov 
(1803),  at  St.  Petersburg  (1819)  and  Kiev  (1833),  and, 
in  1827,  removed  the  Finnish  university  from  Abo 
and  substantially  founded  it  at  Helsingfors,  the  capital. 
Prussia  made  up  for  the  German  losses  by  founding 
tlie  great  university  of  Berhn  (1809)  and  the  one  at 


The  Past.  31 

Bonn  (1818).  Norway  established  her  first  and  only 
university,  at  Christiania,  pattorniiig  after  the  German 
type,  Italy  added  t<»  her  cluster  the  uiiivernity  of 
Genua  (1812),  13el«^iuni  planted  universities  at  Ghent 
(1810),  at  Liege  (1817),  and  at  Brussels  (1837).  The 
Ionian  Islands  founded  one  at  Corfu  (1824).  Switzer- 
land added  two  others,  one  at  Berne  and  the  other  at 
Zurich  (1833— 1).  England  created  the  anomalous 
examining  board  entitled  the  University  of  London 
(183G),  followed  nine  years  later  by  the  somewhat 
similar  organization  known  as  Queen's  College,  Ireland. 
And,  last  of  all,  Greece,  mother  of  all  the  universities 
and  of  the  literature,  science,  philosophy  and  art  they 
have  fostered  and  developed  during  the  past  two 
thousand  years,  happily  completed  the  circle  of  the 
centuries  by  founding,  at  Athens,  her  first  nominal 
university  in  1837. 

As  to  our  own  country,  all  Americans  are  fomiliar 
with  how  rapidly,  within  the  last  period,  institutions 
of  learning  aspiring  to  the  rank  of  universities  have 
sprung  up  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 

But  the  most  remarkable  product  of  this  century's 
early  planting  —  most  perfect  also  of  its  kind,  regard- 
less of  time  —  was  the  university  of  Berlin.  Its  foun- 
dations were  laid  in  the  dark  hour  of  national  defeat 
—  while  the  thunder  of  Xapoleon's  cannon  still  echoed 
among  the  hills  about  Jena  —  while  French  bayonets 
yet  glistened  in  the  streets  of  Berlin,  aud  the  heroic 


82  University  Progress. 

Frederick  William  was  still  an  exile  in  the  remotest 
corner  of  his  dismembered  realm.  Its  origin  was  a 
profound  conviction  of  the  king,  shared  by  the  ablest 
statesmen  of  the  time,  that  the  surest  way  for  Prussia 
to  her  lost  rank  among  the  great  nations,  was  through 
the  door  of  intellectual  supremacy ;  and  that  the  most 
potent  agency  for  the  attainment  of  that  supremacy 
would  be  a  grand  central  university  that  should 
embrace  the  best  cultivated  men  of  the  age,  and  that 
should  be  able  by  means  of  free  inquiry  to  advance 
the  knowledge  of  the  world  in  every  department,  by 
the  maintenance  of  the  highest  possible  standards  in 
its  own  faculties  to  raise  all  classes  of  schools  below 
it  to  a  higher  level,  and  thus,  by  means  of  true 
enlightenment,  stimulation  and  guidance,  to  insure  the 
universal  and  the  highest  possible  education  of  her 
people. 

Planned  under  the  leadership  of  the  distinguished 
and  far-seeing  "Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  then  minister 
of  public  instruction,  and  in  counsel  with  the  wisest 
scholars  of  Germany,  it  had  the  benefit  of  the  long 
experience  of  all  other  institutions  of  its  kind,  com- 
parative freedom  from  the  prejudices  and  errors  in 
which  they  were  founded,  the  inspiration  of  the  new 
era  of  science,  and  the  powerful  stimulus  of  a  desperate 
and  yet  lofty  national  ambition.  It  was  founded, 
therefore,  in  the  special  interest  of  no  church,  or  school, 
whether  of  politics,  philosophy  or  science,  but  solely 


Tlie  Past.  83 

and  sublimely  in  the  interest  of  free  and  universal  cul- 
ture. Its  teachers  were  to  know  no  fetters,  its  students 
to  be  ratlier  led  and  lifted  up  by  the  inspiration  of  the 
schools  than  forced  into  fixed  cliannels  by  the  con- 
straints of  arbitrary  law.  "Wolf,  Fichte,  Reil,  Savigny, 
and  Schleiermacher  were  among  the  illustrious  men 
who  first  taught  in  its  halls.  The  experiment  was  a 
splendid  success.  Within  five  years  from  the  date  of 
inauguration  its  corps  of  professors  and  teachers  num- 
bered fifty-six,  and  within  sixteen  years  its  students 
sixteen  hundred.  It  became,  of  course,  an  object  of 
envy  to  many  of  the  ancient  universities,  no  less  than 
of  pride  to  the  kingdom  of  Prussia,  under  whose  foster- 
ing care  it  soon  rose  to  be  the  pride  of  all  Germany 
and  the  grand  model  after  which,  as  fast  as  circum- 
stances would  allow,  the  other  German  universities 
have  been  more  or  less  fashioned. 


84  University  Progress. 


II. 


"Within  the  past  few  years  the  European  universities 
have  ceased  to  multiply,  and  the  efforts  of  learned 
men  and  governments  have  been  wisely  directed  to 
the  development  of  such  as  already  exist,  with  a  view 
to  making  them  better  answer  the  demands  of  the 
present  age. 

And  yet  this  statement  is  hardly  true,  except  as 
to  multiplication,  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  where  the 
universities  may  be  said  to  have  fallen  into  a  decay, 
from  which  nothing  but  the  upheaval  of  some  revolu- 
tion, like  that  now  disturbing  the  old  order  of  things 
in  Spain,  seems  likely  to  rescue  them,  ^or  is  it 
wholly  true  of  the  Dutch  universities ;  for,  although 
the  university  of  Leyden  has,  of  late,  opened  wide  its 
doors  to  the  physical  and  natural  sciences,  like  the 
other  two,  at  Utrecht  and  Groningen,  in  most  other 
respects  it  firmly  holds  on  to  the  old  regime  of  two 
hundred  years  ago.  Nor  yet  is  it  true,  in  general,  of 
either  the  Scandinavian  or  Russian  universities,  — 
though,  in  a  qualified  sense,  applicable  to  those  of 
Copenhagen  and  Christiania,  where  the  field  of  study 
is  being  steadily  enlarged,  where  private  lecturers 
(corresponding  to  the  jprivat-docenten  of  Germany) 
are  beginning  to  find  place,  and  where  the  students 


Tftc  Prc!<ent.  '60 

are   more  nearly   on    the    (lurnum    footing, —  for,    in 
Russia,  they  have  scarcely  nuule  any  perceptible  pro 
gress   since   their   toundation ;    and   in    Sweden,   the 
ancient  universities  of  Lund  and  Upsal  even  nuiintain 
their  mediieval  statutory  regulations  as  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  four  faculties,  the  appointment  and  support 
of  chancelloi-s,  pro-chancellors,  deans,  professors,  and 
assistants,  and  the  division  of  all  their  students  into 
nations^  after  the  manner  of  the  French,  English  and 
Italian  universities  of  five  and  six  hundred  years  ago. 
In  all  the  countries  above-named,  as  being  exceptions 
to  the  rule  of  modern  improvement,  the  universities 
are  not  only  state  institutions,  and  the  recipients  of 
regular  funds  from  their  respective  governments,  but 
several  of  them  are  numerously  attended  —  those  of 
Copenhagen,  Christiania,  Upsala  and  St.  Petersburg 
numbering   from    800   to   1,500  students.     They  are 
weak,  however,  in  the  number  of  their  ])rofessors  ;  the 
number  employed  in  the  professional  faculties  scarcely 
exceeding  four  to  seven,  witli,  perhaps,  two  or  three 
adjuncts  and  docents,  and  in  the  philosophical  faculty 
ten  to  twenty  professors,  with  a  corresponding  number 
of  adjuncts  and  docents. 

Of  all  the  northern — north  of  Copenhagen  —  uni- 
versities, the  Imperial  Alexander's  University  of  Fin- 
land, at  Ilelsingfors,  seems  more  especially  to  have 
caught  the  spirit  of  modern  improvement,  and  to  be 


36  University  Progress. 

fairly  alive.  It  was  there,  in  my  recent  toiir  of 
inspection,  and  there  only,  that  I  breathed  no  longer 
the  stagnant  atmosphere  of  the  dead  past.  The  pro- 
fessional faculties  are  not  yet  strong, —  a  fact  that  may 
be  accounted  for,  perhaps,  by  the  paucity  of  the  popu- 
lation they  have  need  to  supply  with  professional  men, 
and  that  geographical  isolation  which  denies  to  them 
the  advantage  of  numerous  foreign  students, —  but  the 
philosophical  faculty,  numbering  eighteen  professors, 
six  readers  (iehtorer\  and  fourteen  docents,  is  not  only 
characterized  by  the  activity  and  scientific  spirit  of  the 
German  philosophical  faculty,  but  is  also  marked  by 
the  very  notable  disposition  of  the  foremost  universi- 
ties of  the  world  to  develop  out  of  itself  special 
schools  devoted  to  the  more  thorough  cultivation  of 
important  groups  of  studies,  the  necessary  mastery  of 
which  cannot  be  acquired  in  the  simple  faculty  of 
philosophy  as  a  school  of  high  general  and  philo- 
sophic culture, 

The  English  universities  are,  to-day,  almost  more 
anomalous  than  those  of  Sweden ;  for  although  these 
last  are  linked  by  the  national  feature  to  the  thirteenth 
century,  in  their  general  faculty  constitution  they  are 
the  kindred  of  the  foremost  universities  of  the  present 
time;  whereas  Oxford  and  Cambridge  have  lost  their 
university  character  altogether  and  become  nothing 
other  than  great  colleges,  formed  by  the  practical  and 


Hie  Present  37 

lei^al  at^gre-^ition  of  miineroua  grammar  scliooU 
known  as  "  colleges  "  and  "  halls."  The  faculticH,  aj* 
before  remarked,  have  ceased  to  exist ;  and  althouirh 
degrees,  theological,  meilical  and  legal,  are  still  con- 
ferred by  the  so-called  university  authorities,  the 
instruction  received  by  candidates,  excepting  the  few 
lectures  given  by  the  university  j)rofessors,  is  given  in 
connection  with  the  independent  schools,  hospitals  and 
inns  of  court  found  in  the  great  cities. 

Of  the  colleges  thus  aggregated,  Cambridge  has 
seventeen ;  Oxford  nineteen,  besides  five  halls,  which 
practicidly  amount  to  the  same  thing.  Each  of  them 
is  a  separate  corporation,  with  its  own  inde})endent 
estates,  and  is  governed  by  its  own  "  head  "  and  "  fel- 
lows," who  exercise  supreme  authority  over  the  stu- 
dents within  its  walls.  The  instruction  is  given  by 
"tutors"  exclusively.  Some  of  the  colleges  are  so 
richly  endowed  that  their  several  incomes  supjKtrt  not 
only  the  head  at  a  salary  of  §5,000  to  §15,000,  the 
tutors  and  over  a  score  of  other  "fellows"  at  salaries 
ranging  from  $500  to  $1,500,  but  also  to  aid  numerous 
undergraduate  stipendiaries,  known  as  "scholars," 
with  annual  amounts  t)f  from  ^DOO  to  $500.  Fellows, 
tutors  and  scholars  are  elected  after  competitive  exam- 
imitions ;  and  as,  in  addition  to  the  handsome  incomes 
thus  secured,  they  have  a  free  home  in  the  college 
buildings,  it  may  be  supposed  that  those  examimitions 
are  thorough  and  severe.     The  great  body  of  the  stu- 


397468 


38  Uni/versity  Progress. 

dents  support  themselves,  however;  boarding  (as 
"  commoners  "  or  "  pensioners  ")  at  the  college  table, 
and  paying  such  moderate  fees  for  instruction  as  are 
required  to  make  a  sufficient  support  for  the  tutors. 
Resident  fellows,  not  employed  as  tutors,  are  enabled 
by  the  incomes  secured  to  them  to  follow  such  higher 
courses  of  study  as  are  offered  them  in  the  uni- 
versity, or  to  pursue  such  special  investigations  as 
they  like. 

Superior  to  these  colleges  and  halls  there  is  a  fed- 
eral authority  known  as  the  "university,"  whose 
senate  legislates  in  a  general  way  upon  subjects  of 
both  education  and  discipline  for  the  entire  federation 
of  colleges,  and,  through  its  own  officers,  manages 
them  as  one  institution,  holding  the  examinations, 
conferring  all  degrees,  etc.  The  university  instruction 
consists  wholly  of  lectures,  given  by  some  thirty  pro- 
fessors, many  of  whom  are  appointed  quite  as  much 
to  sustain  the  dignity  of  the  institution  as  with  a  view 
to  any  essential  service  in  the  way  of  instruction.  As 
the  university  itself  is  not  endowed,  like  the  colleges, 
but  dependent  upon  the  government,  tlie  post  of  ^^ro- 
fessor  is  less  important  pecuniarily  than  that  of  tutor. 
It  is  perhaps  in  this  circumstance  of  the  poverty  of  the 
universities  as  such,  however,  that  the  promise  lies  of 
a  better  future  ;  since  it  is  the  occasion  of  their  being 
brought  into  the  arena  of  discussion,  and  subjected  to 
the  criticism  of  liberal  and  progressive  minds.     The 


The  Present.  89 

fhiit  of  sucli  discussion  is  already  showing  itself  in 
the  partial  abolishment  of  the  ancient  religious  tests; 
in  the  introduction  of  studies  long  excluded,  uj)on 
terms  of  equality  with  the  classical  studies,  which  so 
long  have  had  a  monopoly  of  the  instruction  given  in 
these  and  others  of  the  great  schools  of  England ; 
in  the  curtailment  of  the  time  once  so  lavishly,  and,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  unnecessarily,  spent  upon  Latin  and 
Greek,  even  upon  their  own  theory  of  the  relative 
importance  of  those  studies ;  in  a  limited  modification 
of  the  ancient  statute  requiring  all  students  to  belong 
to  one  of  the  colleges ;  and  in  the  prevalence  of  a 
strong  desire,  in  some  high  quarters,  for  a  thorough 
reorganization  of  the  English  universities  upon  a  basis 
more  in  harmony  with  the  intellectual  wants  of  Great 
Britain,  and  with  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

The  Scottish  and  Irish  universities,  having  had  less 
need  of  reformation  in  many  of  the  particulars  above 
referred  to,  have  undergone  less  change  within  the 
few  past  years  than  those  of  England. 

Institutions  of  the  university  class  are  less  numerous 
in  Great  Britain  than  in  any  other  European  country 
of  equal  jwpulation,  except  Russia,  and  nothing  but  a 
blind  and  stubborn  conservatism  has  prevented  their 
being  put  upon  at  least  au  equality  with  the  foremost 
in  the  world. 

In  point  of  slow  progress  and  present  backward  con- 


40  University  Progress. 

dition,  Italy  ranks  next  in  the  ascending  scale.  The 
majority  of  her  universities  conform  more  nearly  to 
the  highest  present  standard,  in  the  matter  of  constitu- 
tion, the  completeness  of  their  faculties,  and  the  length 
of  the  term  of  study  prescribed,  than  a  majority  of 
those  of  France ;  but,  on  the  otlier  hand,  in  the  active 
energy  manifested,  and  the  number  of  students  attend- 
ing them,  she  is  behind.  There  are  twenty  in  all  — 
fifteen  of  them  royal,  and  five/ree,  or  independent  of 
state  control  —  and  yet  the  total  number  of  students 
is  but  10,000,  or  about  one  student  to  every  2,200  of 
the  population.  Even  among  these,  the  proportion  is 
lamentably  large  of  those  who  seem  to  be  there  with 
no  very  definite  purpose,  and  who  are  ready,  there- 
fore, at  all  times  to  shirk  the  labor  of  hard  study,  and 
even  occasionally,  with  or  without  pretext  —  and 
usually  for  the  reason  that  they  fancy  still  easier  times 
await  them  at  some  other  institution,  or  at  no  institu- 
tion at  all  —  to  effect  a  practical  adjournment  of  their 
several  courses  of  study  by  retiring  in  large  bodies ; 
leaving  their  forsaken  professors  to  lecture  to  vacant 
seats,  or  close  their  labors  for  that  particular  semester. 
The  professors,  too,  as  a  general  rule,  in  the  Italian 
universities,  have  fallen  into  easy  habits,  giving  fewer 
lectures  per  semester  by  one-third  than  is  common  in 
those  of  Germany  and  some  other  states,  and  yet 
doing  no  more  if  so  much  in  the  way  of  private  labors 
as  investigators  and  authors. 


The  Present.  41 

A  full  Italian  university  consists  of  five  faculties  — 
a  faculty  of  letters  and  jdiilosintliy  {facoltd  Jilomjico- 
Jiloloylc'd)^  a  faculty  of  tiie  sciences  {Jacoltd  delle 
8cieme  fiaicke  laateiiiatiche  e  natu/'all),  a  faculty  of 
jurisprudence,  a  faculty  of  medicine,  and  a  faculty  of 
theology.  The  faculty  of  theology  is  often  wanting, 
for  the  reason  that  instruction  in  the  the<)l(>«rical 
branches  is  so  generally  given  in  the  seminaries 
established  by  the  church. 

In  no  country  —  not  even  in  France  and  Belgium, 
where  the  time-honored  faculty  of  philosophy  is 
divided  in  like  manner  —  is  the  field  of  general  cul- 
ture so  divided  up  and  cultivated  in  detail;  and  in 
none  is  the  term  of  study  mure  protracted.  Xot  con- 
tent with  a  single  division  of  the  arts  or  philosophical 
faculty  into  the  two  faculties  first  above-named,  they 
80  distribute  the  studies  embraced  as  to  make  six  four- 
years  courses,  each  with  its  own  special  dij)loma, 
to-wit :  one  in  letters,  one  in  philosophy,  one  in  pure 
mathematics  (including,  however,  inorganic  chemis- 
try, physics  and  design),  one  in  physico-mathematical 
sciences  (which  also  embraces  geology  and  mineral- 
ogy), one  in  the  physico-chemical  sciences,  and  one  in 
natural  history. 

The  terms  of  admission  are  uniform  throughout  the 
kingdom,  re(piiring,  among  other  things,  that  the 
ap})licant  shall  present  the  certificate  of  Ucenza  llceale 
(corresponding  to  our  degree  of  A.B.)      The  term  of 


42  University  Progress. 

study  requisite  to  a  final  examination  for  a  degree  in 
the  faculty  of  theology,  in  all  universities  in  which 
such  a  faculty  exists  at  all,  is  five  years,  in  that  of 
jurisprudence  five,  in  that  of  medicine  six  years. 
Whether  under  a  more  rigorous  management  these 
protracted  courses  of  study  are  absolutely  necessary 
or  not,  their  prescription  by  the  Italian  government 
affords  gratifying  evidence  of  a  disposition  to  keep  the 
door  to  the  professions  closed  against  all  who  refuse 
to  qualify  themselves  therefor  in  a  thorough  manner. 
The  government  further  manifests  its  desire  to  make 
the  universities  useful  by  contributing  so  liberally 
to  their  support  *  that  only  very  small  fees  need  be 
demanded  of  students.  Indeed,  the  fees  are  so  near 
nothing  that,  with  the  moderate  expenses  of  living, 
the  average  total  CQst  of  the  Italian  university  stu- 
dent's maintenance  is  but  $160  per  annum.  Never- 
theless, owing  to  the  too  great  number  of  these  insti- 
tutions—  which  makes  it  impossible  for  the  govern- 
ment to  officer  them  with  the  strongest  and  ablest 
corps  of  professors  —  as  well  as  to  the  general  intel- 
lectual apathy  wliich  has  so  long  prevailed  in  Italy, 
university  education  is  at  so  low  an  ebb  among  the 
Italians  that  it  is  not  without  good  reasons  that  her 
most  enlightened  statesmen  are  looking  anxiously  to 
other  countries  for  the  causes  of  their  better  success, 
and  laboring  with  great  zeal  for  a  general  reform. 


*  The  annual  amount  expended  upon  the  royal  universities  is  over  6,000,000 
Ike. 


The  J^esent.  43 

University  edufation  is  sufforin^  from  like  causes  in 
all  the  Lutin  states.  France  is  in  the  most  advanced 
condition  of  any  of  tlicni.  Indee<i  there  is  no  univer- 
sity in  Italy — or  anywhere  else,  for  that  matter, 
outside  of  Berlin  and  Vienna  —  which,  for  the  numer- 
ical streiiffth  and  brilliancy  of  its  body  of  professors, 
the  vast  ran<;^e  of  the  specific  subjects  tau<;ht,  and  the 
number  of  students  who  wait  ujM)n  its  various  facul- 
ties, can  compare  with  the  Aca(Uinie  de  Paris.  liut 
then  it  must  not  be  forpjotten  that,  in  respect  of  great 
institutions,  scientific,  literary  and  professional,  the 
remark  of  the  first  xsapoieou,  ''  I'arincest  lu'ance^''''  is 
eminently  true.  It  is  there  that  the  <ijrandly  planned 
institutions  are  established  —  there  that  the  most 
brilliant  savants  of  the  empire  are  gathered  —  there 
that  are  congregated  tlie  thousands  of  her  young  men 
who  most  huufjer  and  thirst  for  the  hijriier  knowledije 
which  promises  national  distinction. 

There  are  no  nomimxl  universities  at  all  in  France. 
What  was  formerly  called,  and  is  still  frecpiently 
spoken  of  as,  the  University  of  France,  is  nothing 
other  than  a  superior  council  of  education,  with  the 
minister  of  })ublic  instruction  at  irs  head.  The  insti- 
tutions highest  in  rank  are  all  known  as  aradeiaic^., 
though  in  reality  being  universities  in  the  continental 
sense.  Like  the  universities  of  Italy,  a  full  academy 
has  five  faculties  —  the  usual  }>rofessional  faculties, 
jind,  besides  them,  a  faculty  of  letters    {facult-e  dc8 


4:4:  University  Progress. 

lettres)^  and  a  faculty  of  sciences  {faculte  des  sciences). 
Manj  of  them  are  wanting,  however,  in  one  or  more 
of  the  professional  faculties ;  indeed,  those  of  letters 
and  of  the  sciences  are  the  only  ones  invariably 
embraced.  The  professors  are  all  named  by  the 
emperor ;  and  the  deans  of  faculty,  though  selected  by 
the  minister  with  the  concurrence  of  the  professors,  are 
confirmed  by  his  majesty.  They  are  not  so  numer- 
ous, in  proportion  to  the  total  number  of  faculties, 
as  they  are  in  Italy,  much  less  so  than  in  Germany ; 
the  average  per  faculty,  in  the  sixteen  academies,  being 
but  7.24.  They  are  also  paid  by  the  government, 
which  collects  the  fees  required  of  students,  and 
manages  all  the  financial,  as  well  as  educational,  affairs 
of  the  academies.  Twelve  thousand  francs  is  con- 
sidered a  high  salary. 

The  students  pay  considerably  larger  fees  than  in 
Italy,  board  where  they  like,  and  are  subject  to  but 
little  discipline  independent  of  what  is  necessary  to 
insure  proficiency  in  study.  Even  that  little  consists 
more  in  searching  and  merciless  examinations  than  in 
anything  else.  Admission  to  the  academy  is  depend- 
ent, first,  on  the  ability  to  produce  the  usual  moral 
certificate,  the  certificate  of  having  satisfactorily  com- 
pleted a  course  in  a  lyceum  or  communal  college,  and, 
secondly,  the  passing  a  rigid  entrance  examination. 
Admission  to  the  professional  faculties  is  in  no  case 
possible  unless  the  candidate  can  present  his  diploma 


Tilt'  Presfiiit.  45 

as  hachelier  dm  lettres,  or  h(u;helier  des  sciences  — 
degrees  wliidi  indicate  ulxmt  the  same  uinoimt  <»f 
nttaininents  as  is  represented  by  our  degrees  of 
baiclielor  of  arts  and  bachelor  of  science  and  pliilo- 
sophy,  and  wliich  are  conditioned,  in  like  manner,  uj»on 
four  years  of  acadeniical  study.  The  instruction  in  all 
the  faculties  is  almost  wholly  by  lectures. 

The  professioiud  courses  of  study  are  one-fourth  to 
one-third  shorter  than  in  Italy;  that  required  for  the 
decree  of  doctor  of  medicine  Ijeing  four  vears,  for  that 
of  licentiate  in  theology  four  years,  for  licentiate  in  law 
three  years.  The  theological  degree  is  not  recognized 
by  the  church,  but  is  essential  to  such  as  are  looking 
to  professorships  in  a  theological  faculty. 

The  present  number  of  chairs  in  all  the  sixteen 
academies  is  384 ;  of  which  113  belong  to  the  Academie 
de  Paris.  Forty-two  of  the  38-1  belong  to  theology, 
98  to  law,  61  to  medicine,  86  to  letters,  and  97  to 
science  so-called.  The  whole  number  of  students  in 
attendance  upon  all  the  academies  and  other  superior 
institutions,  such  as  the  College  de  France,  is  some- 
thing over  23,000,  or  about  one  student  for  every 
1,900  inhabitants;  of  which  over  14,000  must  be 
assigned  to  tlie  faculties  of  Paris. 

As  in  the  British  universities  the  prevailing  spirit  is 
classical,  so,  on  the  other  hand,  in  those  of  France  the 
mathematical,  physical  and  natural  sciences  are  domi- 
nant.    Still,   neither   language,   literature,  nor  meta- 


46  Universitij  Progress, 

physical  science  is  neglected,  much  less  ignored,  as 
has  been  the  case  so  long  with  the  physical  and  natural 
sciences  in  England;  while  history  and  political 
economy  are  treated  with  great  consideration.  Tlie 
main  ground  for  regret  is,  that  there  should  be,  or 
seem  to  be,  a  necessity  for  the  curtailment  of  that  per- 
fect intellectual  liberty  without  which  it  is  impossible 
that  any  university  should  entirely  fulfill  its  high  mis- 
sion. 

The  Universities  of  Belgium,  though  they  present 
some  indications  of  German  influence,  are,  neverthe- 
less, so  nearly  modelled  after  those  of  France,  that 
nothing  more  than  this  simple  statement  seems  to  be 
required  in  this  connection.  They  are  four  in  num- 
ber: two  under  the  control  of  the  government,  and 
two  free,  and  are  creditably  sustained.  The  number 
of  students  frequenting  them  is  about  2,400,  or  one 
for  every  2,000  inhabitants. 

Switzerland  falls  in  the  same  general  category  with 
Belgium,  except  that  her  universities  are  of  the  Ger- 
man rather  than  of  the  French  type ;  most  of  the 
instruction  being  given  in  the  German  language,  and 
a  large  proportion  of  the  professors  being  natives  of 
the  German  states. 

The  universities  of  Germany  have  already  been  said 
to  represent  the  best  system  of  university  education 
in.  Europe.     This  is  universally  conceded. 


Tlie  Present.  47 

The  nnml»er  of  faoulties  essential  to  what  is  known 
as  a  complete  university,  is  four,  to  wit:  faculties  of 
j)hilosophy,  tlioolorry,  Ijiw,  and  medicine.  Of  these 
tliere  are  s(»me  twenty-five  in  all  the  states  —  ten  in 
Prussia,  six  in  Austria,  three  in  Bavaria,  two  in  Baden, 
and  one  each  in  Saxony,  Saxe-Weimar,  Wurtemberg, 
and  Ilesse-Darmstadt;  and  thourjhdifFe ring  slightly  as 
to  constitution  and  management,  they  bear  the  stamp 
of  a  common  mold.  Some  of  them  have  more  than  four 
faculties,  for  instance,  as  in  the  case  of  the  university  of 
Tiibingen,  which  has  both  a  Catholic  and  a  Protestant 
faculty  of  theology,  and  of  the  universities  of  Bavaria, 
which  add  to  the  canonical  four  a  faculty  of  the  politi- 
cal sciences.  And  again  some  of  them  —  after  the 
manner  of  the  universities  of  Copenhagen  and  Hel- 
gingfors,  which  are  incorporating  polytechnic  schools, 
and  several  in  Italy,  which  have  incorporated  schools 
of  enjjineerintj  and  veterinarv  science — have  associ- 
ated  with  them  schools  of  the  practical  arts.  Among 
these  are  the  universities  of  Gottingen,  Hallo,  and 
Bonn,  which  have  established  agricultural  depart- 
ments, and  the  university  of  Berlin,  with  its  veterin- 
ary school,  practically  a  branch  of  the  medical  faculty. 
But,  then,  they  all  agree  in  their  most  essential  features^ 
even  as  the  people  of  the  dilierent  states  are  one  in 
certain  physiognomical  and  mental  characteristics. 

None  of  the  schools  of  the  industrial  professions 
have  yet  attained  to  the  dignity  of  faculties 


48  University  Progress. 

The  German  universities  also  substantially  agree 
in  the  mode  of  constitution  and  government,  in  which 
respect  but  little  change  has  occurred  during  the  pre- 
sent century.  Originally  the  faculties  are  created  by 
appointment  of  the  sovereign  or  his  minister  of  pub- 
lic instruction.  The  organization  is  then  perfected  by 
the  faculties  themselves ;  the  full  professors  in  each 
of  which  elect  a  presiding  officer  (dean)  for  that  par- 
ticular faculty,  and,  in  most  cases,  a  single  professor  to 
represent  them  in  the  senatus  aoaderniGus,  composed 
of  such  representatives  of  the  several  faculties,  the 
actual  president  or  rector,  and  the  outgoing  rector. 
The  professors  —  the  full  professors,  not  the  extra- 
ordinary professors,  who  correspond,  in  Germany,  to 
the  suppliants  or  adjunct  professors  of  France  and 
have  no  share  in  the  government,  in  most  cases  — 
also  elect  the  rector  of  the  university.  All  these  offi- 
cers —  deans,  members  of  the  academical  senate,  and 
the  rector  —  are  elected  for  but  one  year. 

The  rector,  as  the  executive  head  of  the  university, 
is  charged  with  its  general  discipline,  and  in  case  of 
any  serious  misdemeanor  on  the  part  of  a  student,  or 
other  person  within  the  range  of  university  jurisdic- 
tion, he  associates  with  him  an  "  assessor  "  or  judge. 

The  organization  once  perfected,  the  senate  is  vir- 
tually the  governing  power,  although  all  measures  of 
importance,  as  well  as  all  nominations  of  new  profes- 
sors, must  have  the  approval  of  the  minister. 


The  Present.  49 

Besides  tliese  two  classes  of  professors,  there  is  still 
in  all  Gennan  universities,  that  third  and  unique  class 
of  teuchor!^,  to  which  allusion  has  already  been  made, 
a^  being  found  in  the  ujiiversities  of  Northern  Europe, 
and,  to  a  very  limited  extent,  also  in  Italy  —  the  class 
of  private  lecturers  {privat-docenten).  Herein  lies  the 
secret  of  their  vitality  and  power.  Every  docent  is 
supposed  to  be  an  aspirant  for  a  professorship.  He 
can  only  become  such  by  applying  to  the  faculty  in 
whose  group  of  studies  he  desires  to  give  instruction. 
If,  on  inquiry,  they  become  satisfied  that  he  has  distin- 
guished himself  as  a  student,  and  possesses  rare  quali- 
fications, the  professors  in  such  faculty  delegate  two 
of  their  number  to  subject  him  to  a  thorough  exam- 
ination (known  as  fuibiUtation)  in  the  branches  named 
in  his  application.  Should  the  result  be  satisfactory, 
he  is  then  nominated  to  the  minister,  whose  contirm- 
ation  is  his  warrant  to  lecture  on  any  of  the  topics 
belonging  to  his  particular  faculty.  It  is  rare  that  a 
docent  receives  anything  whatever  in  the  way  of  a 
salary.  Ilis  sole  means  of  support  are  the  fees  he 
can  command  for  his  lectures,  which  must  in  no  case 
be  lower  than  the  fees  of  a  full  professor  for  lectures 
on  the  same  class  of  subjects.  He  has  the  free  use 
of  the  lecture-rooms,  when  not  occupied  by  the  pro- 
fessors, and  the  quaestor  collects  his  fees  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  fees  of  the  professors.  No  restriction 
whatever  is  put  upon  him  as  to  the  particular  subjects 

4: 


50  University  Progress. 

appropriate  to  liis  faculty  upon  which  he  shall  lec- 
ture —  not  though  he  should  choose  to  select  the  iden- 
tical theme  for  his  discourse  on  which  the  most  distin- 
guished professor  in  his  faculty  lectured  in  the  same 
place  the  preceding  hour.  The  student  may  attend 
which  of  them  he  pleases,  and  his  attendance  upon 
the  lecture  of  the  docent  counts  just  the  same,  in  the 
final  reckoning,  as  attendance  upon  the  lecture  of  the 
professor.  Should  a  vacancy  occur  in  the  chair  of  an 
extraordinary  professor  —  and  such  a  thing  is  quite 
apt  to  occur  where  there  is  more  genius  in  the  rank 
below  than  in  the  one  above  —  or  should  it  be  deter- 
mined to  create  a  new  chair,  the  aspiring  docent  rises, 
and  patiently  works  and  waits  for  a  like  good  fortune 
to  place  him  in  the  chair  of  a  full  professor,  either  in 
his  own  or  in  some  other  imiversity. 

It  is  easy  to  see  what  a  powerful  stimulation  to  best 
endeavor,  on  the  part  of  both  professors  and  privat- 
docenten^  these  circumstances  must  create. 

The  full  professors  are  held  in  high  honor,  and  in 
most  cases  enjoy  fair  incomes ;  for,  in  the  first  place, 
they  have  a  fixed  salary  from  the  state,  of  itself  equal 
to  a  moderate  support  —  being  usually  from  $1,000  to 
$3,000  —  and,  \)esides  this,  such  fees  as  their  ability 
will  enable  them  to  command.  In  this  way,  at  the 
most  prosperous  and  numerously  attended  institutions, 
mcomes  sometimes  rise  as  high  as  $5,000  to  $8,000. 

The  extraordinary  professors  usually,  though  not 


Tlic  Present.  51 

invariably,  have  fixed  salaries.  These  are  not  large, 
liowever,  and  tlieir  main  reliance  is  on  the  fees  paid 
by  students. 

From  what  I  have  just  said,  it  follows  that  the  life 
and  success  of  a  university  in  Germany  may  be  esti- 
mated by  the  number  of  its  privai-docenten.  For 
where  thev  are  numerous,  the  inference  is  lejritimate 
that  they  are  well  supported ;  and  good  support,  where 
dependent  on  fees  which  are  limited  to  very  small 
amoimts,  as  compared  with  every  other  country  except 
Italy,  \s>  priTna  facie  evidence  of  activity  and  progress. 

In  the  matter  of  material  auxiliaries,  such  as  labora- 
tories, cabinets,  museums,  li-braries,  etc.,  the  German 
universities  are  better  provided  than  any  other ;  their 
collections  of  ajjparatus  and  specimens  for  illustration 
often  being  very  large  and  magnificent ;  their  chem- 
ical, physical,  physiological  and  other  scientific  labon*- 
tories  the  finest  in  the  world ;  and  their  libraries  occa- 
sionally numbering  as  high  as  300,000  to  500,000 
volumes. 

Their  educational  status,  as  shown  by  the  range  of 
studies  in  the  different  faculties,  may  be  inferred  tVoin 
these  facts :  that  no  applicant  can  be  received  as  a 
matriculant  unless  he  can  produce  a  certificate  of 
maturity  {maturiUitifzeugniss)  from  a  gymnasium  — 
which  certificate  represents  as  high  or  higher  attain- 
ments than  the  diploma  of  bachelor  of  arts  in  the 
United   States  —  and  is  able,  moreover,  to   pass  an 


52  JJnmersity  Progress. 

examination  at  the  door  of  the  faculty  he  would  enter ; 
that  the  term  of  study  is  three  years  in  the  facuUies 
of  pliilosophy,  theology,  and  law,  and  live  years  in  the 
faculty  of  medicine  ;  and  that  no  student  in  any  of  the 
professional  faculties  can  be  admitted  to  an  examina- 
tion for  a  degree  unless,  either  prior  to  admission  to 
such  faculty,  or  simultaneously  with  his  study  therein, 
he  shall  have  devoted  a  considerable  share  of  time  — 
not  less  than  one  year  —  to  attendance  upon  lectures 
in  the  faculty  of  philosophy,  which  is  unquestionably 
the  best  school  of  high  and  profound  general  culture 
to  be  found  in  the  world. 

In  matters  of  discipline  and  the  requirements  made 
of  students,  the  universities  of  Germany  are  the 
antipodes  of  those  of  England.  For  while  the  British 
students  board  in  some  one  of  the  colleges  or  halls, 
are  watched  and  drilled  by  tutors,  and  are  in  nearly 
all  respects  subjected  to  the  same  sort  of  sun-eillance 
that  characterizes  the  primary  school,  the  German  stu- 
dents, on  the  other  hand,  lodge  and  take  their  meals 
where  they  like,  and  are  taught  almost  exclusively 
by  lecturers,  who  neither  watch  nor  pretend  to  control 
their  conduct ;  the  theory  being,  that,  having  passed 
their  school  days  and  entered  upon  the  study  of  phi- 
losophy and  the  learned  professions,  they  are  no  longer 
mere  boys,  but  men.  If  they  seriously  oifend,  there 
are  the  rector  and  his  associate  judge  to  reprimand, 
fine,  imprison  (for  a  period  not  exceeding  one  month), 


Tlie  Present.  58 

dismiss,  or  expel,  according  to  tlie  nature  of  tlie  offence. 
But  until  they  do  actually  so  ufreiul  they  are  treated 
as  geutk'uien.  The  error  i.s,  indee<l,  on  the  wide  of 
laxity ;  for,  although  the  excesses  of  former  years  are 
no  longer  common,  there  is  but  little  room  for  doubt 
that  the  character  and  scholarship  of  German  univer- 
sity students  would  be  still  further  improved  by  the 
stimulating  and  restraining  intluence  of  a  more  positive 
moral  atniospliere,  by  more  frequent  examinations,  as 
tests  of  proticiency,  and  by  a  limited  use  of  the  inter- 
rogative and  recitative  methods,  as  a  uieans  of  insuring 
closer  attention  and  of  fixing  the  truths  taught  them 
more  permanently  in  the  mind  than  is  likely  to  be  the 
case  when  the  instruction  is  given  by  lectures  exclu- 
sively. 

As  to  endowment,  the  German  universities,  with  the 
exception  of  Gottingen,  and  perhaps  two  or  three 
others,  are  poor.  Berlin,  the  greatest  of  theni  all, 
receives  almost  nothing  from  endowment  funds  —  its 
two  hundred  professors  and  its  vast  scientific  establish- 
ments being  sustained  by  the  state  appropriations, 
M-hich  amount  to  some  200,000  thalers  per  annum, 
increased  by  the  very  nioderate  fees  paid  by  students. 

The  total  nund>er  of  students  in  the  univtM-slties  of 
the  (iermim  States  is  over  20,000,  or  about  one  for 
every  1,500  inhabitants.  Those  of  Berlin  and  Vienna 
have  each  2,500  to  8,000.  The  number  of  professors 
is  over  1,800 ;    nearly   800  of  whom   belong  to  the 


64  University  Progress. 

faculty  of  philosophy,  and  the  remainder  to  the  faculties 
of  medicine,  law,  theology,  and  political  economy,  in 
the  order  of  mention.  BerKn,  alone,  has  very  nearly 
200. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  facts,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  university  is  a  power  in  Germany,  nor  that, 
being  free,  it  is  a  power  telling  with  wonderful  effect 
upon  the  intellectual  progress  and  social  elevation  of 
the  German  people. 

What,  now,  of  the  universities  of  the  new  world  ? 

In  South  America,  there  are  at  present  no  institu- 
tions bearing  the  name  of  university ;  nor  is  there  one 
now  known  by  any  other  name  to  which  the  title  of 
university  could  be  properly  applied.  At  Santiago,  in 
Chili,  there  is  a  "national  institute,"  embracing  a 
high-school  department,  with  faculties  of  law  and 
medicine,  but  it  is  now  in  no  sense  a  university,  nor 
does  it  seem  to  be  the  fixed  purpose  of  the  government 
to  give  it  a  university  development.  And  in  Brazil, 
which,  educationally,  is  farther  advanced,  although 
there  is  a  fully-formed  project  to  establish  a  great 
national  university,  like  those  of  Berlin  and  Yienna, 
but  httle  has,  as  yet,  been  accomplished.  I  know  of 
no  other  South  American  state  that  deserves  special 
mention  in  this  connection. 

The  Canadian  universities  are  all  of  the   British 


The  Pre  sent  65 

type,  and  naturally  interior  in  rank,  as  tliey  aro  in 
Avealtli  anil  years,  to  those  of  the  mother  country. 
The  most  important  institutions  are  the  Laval  Univer- 
sity, at  Quebec,  with  faculties  of  arts,  law,  and  medi- 
cine, and  a  theological  school  (division  of  the  seminary 
of  Quebec),  —  none  of  which  are  either  properly  sup- 
plied with  professors  or  numerously  attended  by 
students,  however, — and  the  University  of  Toronto. 
The  last  named  has  an  endowment  of  225,000  acres 
of  the  public  lands,  with  an  unusual  array  of  tine 
buildings,  erected  at  an  aggregate  cost  of  over 
S:]00,000,  and  promises,  at  a  day  not  far  distant,  to 
become  a  university  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name ;  but 
at  present  it  is  but  little  more  than  nominally  so,  as 
compared  with  any  true  standard.  It  embraces  in  its 
plan  the  faculties  of  arts,  medicine  and  law,  together 
with  schools  of  engineering  and  of  agriculture.  There 
are,  besides  these  universities  so-called,  several  col- 
leges, in  both  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  possessing 
university  powers,  but  yet  being,  in  no  proper  sense, 
universities  at  all.  The  character  of  the  studies  pur- 
sued in  them,  and  the  degrees  couferred,aie  essentially 
English  ;  although  the  more  scientific  tendencies  now 
characterizing  the  institutions  of  like  grade  in  the 
neighboring  republic  are  discoverable. 

In  the  United  States,  the  case  is  somewhat,  though 
uot  very  materially,  different.     The  number  of  insti- 


56  University  Progress. 

tutions  wearing  tlie  title  of  university  is  much  larger 
than  in  any  other  country,  and  a  less  number  of  them 
have  really  any  sort  of  claim  to  it.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  are  a  few,  the  number  of  whose  faculties 
and  the  high  quality  of  whose  aims  entitle  them  to 
respectful  consideration.  The  oldest  of  these,  and  the 
oldest  superior  institution  in  America,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity ^  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  may,  with  pro- 
priety, be  taken  as   the  representative  of  the  class. 

The  academical  department  in  each  of  them  occu- 
pies the  same  general  ground  as  the  German  gymna- 
sium. In  the  mathematics,  as  well  as  in  the  belles- 
lettres  and  the  physical  sciences,  it  carries  the  pupil  a 
little  farther ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  ancient 
and  modern  languages,  the  course  of  study  is  quite 
inferior ;  so  that  the  most  proficient  bachelor  of  arts, 
on  leaving  Harvard,  would  find  some  difiiculty  in 
obtaining  the  certificate  of  maturity  [maturitats- 
zeugniss)  were  he  to  present  himself  before  the  proper 
authorities  at  Berlin.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  the 
academical  department  of  our  best  American  univer- 
sities is  but  a  preparatory  school,  as  compared  with 
a  proper  faculty  of  philosophy,  such  as  constitutes  the 
nucleus  of  the  German  university. 

This  academical  department,  thus  narrowly  limited, 
and  which,  at  Harvard,  enjoys  the  services  of  some 
twenty-seven  professors  and  teachers,  is  supplemented 
in  a  certain  way,  it  is  true,  by  certain  so-called  scien- 


TJie  I^esent.  67 

tific  schools.  But  this  supplementation  is  more  in 
nj)pearance  tliaii  in  fiiet,  since  in  most  cases,  as  at 
llarvani,  the  school  in  question  has  no  essential  con- 
nection witii  the  acadeniical  (lej)artment,  to  which  it 
stands  rather  in  the  relation  of  a  rival.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  it  provides  instruction  of  a  high  order,  nor 
that  its  professors,  in  some  cases,  justly  rank  among 
the  ablest  men  of  the  country  and  times.  And  if  the 
terms  of  admission  and  period  of  study  were  at  all  in 
keeping  with  the  vastness  and  importance  of  the  field 
it  assumes  to  represent,  it  might  at  least  be  placed  in 
the  sanie  category  with  the /"acoltd  delle  scienze  jisiehe 
matematiche  e  naturali  of  the  Italian  universities,  or 
the  facultl  des  sciences  of  the  best  French  academies. 
But,  unhappily  for  the  credit  of  the  highest  insti- 
tutions of  learning  in  America,  this  school  of  sci- 
ence falls  quite  below  even  the  lowest  of  foreign 
standards  in  these  and  other  respects.  This  is 
emphatically  true  of  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School, 
at  Cambridge  ;  whose  term  of  study  necessary  to  can- 
didacy for  the  degree  of  "  bachelor  of  science  "  is  one 
year,  and  yet  whose  chief  condition  for  admission  is 
evidence  of  having  received  "  a  good  English  educa- 
tion !  "  The  conditions  prescribed  for  the  School  of 
Mining  and  Practical  Geology,  opened  in  connection 
with  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  —  including 
especially  a  four-years  course  of  study  —  are  more 
worthy  of  the  pretensions  set  up  for  it,  and  help  its 


58  Unwersity  Progress. 

distinguished  teachers  to  save  this  somewhat  noted 
school  of  science  from  foreign  contempt. 

The  "  department  of  philosophy  and  the  arts  "  of 
Yale  College  is  less  obnoxious  to  severe  criticism  ;  since 
in  the  scientific  section  thereof,  known  as  the  Sheffield 
Scientific  School,  the  term  of  study  is  three  years ;  and 
since,  moreover,  the  two-years  course  in  its  section  of 
philosophy,  philology  and  mathematics,  completion  of 
which  is  requisite  to  the  degree  of  "  bachelor  of  phil- 
osophy," is  followed  by  certain  higher  two-years 
courses  of  study  and  examinations,  leading  to  the 
degree  of  "  doctor  of  philosophy." 

Nor  should  I  omit  to  state,  as  a  further  ground 
of  encouragement,  that,  very  recently,  "  university 
courses "  of  lectures,  designed  to  occupy  a  range 
above  the  ordinary  academic  and  scientific  courses 
of  study,  and  consciously  aiming  to  supply  a  grow- 
ing demand  for  the  means  of  a  higher  degree  of 
culture,  have  very  recently  been  opened,  not  only 
at  both  Harvard  and  Yale,  but  also  in  several  other 
of  our  universities.  But  then  it  is,  nevertheless, 
beyond  denial  that,  up  to  this  moment,  the  very  best 
results  attained,  in  the  way  of  supplying  this  most 
serious  deficiency,  fall  painfully  short  of  a  realization 
of  that  true  faculty  of  philosophy  which  is  the 
pride  and  glory  of  the  German  university.  And 
if  this  be  true  of  Harvard,  Yale,  Columbia,  and  our 
best  state  universities,  what  shall  be  said  of  that  vast 


The  Present.  69 

multitude  of  inferior  g;mmmar  schools  and  colleges, 
whose  half-dozen  professors  are  mainly  occupied  in 
teaching  their  unlettered  aiul  undiscij)line<l  pupils  the 
rudiments  of  a  harelv  decent  Kn;;lish  education,  with  a 
smattering  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  and 
which,  nevertheless,  claim  and  ostentatiously  wear  that 
liigh  title  of  which  the  great  universities  of  Berlin, 
Paris,  Vienna,  and  Turin  are  barely  worthy  ? 

Our  university  professional  schools  are  no  less  open 
to  grave  charges.  With  the  exception  of  some  of  the 
schools  of  divinity,  and  two  or  three  of  the  medical 
faculties  —  notable  among  which  are  those  connected 
with  Harvard  University,  and  the  state  University  of 
Michigan  —  they  are  open  to  any  decently  moral 
applicant,  without  regard  to  educational  qualifications, 
and  they  confer  their  degrees  with  a  shameful  disre- 
gard, not  only  of  those  high  standards  of  (qualification 
60  universal  in  the  most  advanced  European  countries, 
but  of  any  really  respectable  standard  whatever.  It  is 
a  sufficient  substantiation  of  this  charge  that,  in  a 
majority  of  such  professional  schools,  the  conditions 
are  such  that  the  veriest  ignoramus,  if  possessed  of 
fair  intellectual  endowments,  may  enter  them,  and,  in 
nine  months  or  one  year  thereafter,  go  forth  to  the 
world  a  regularly  authorized  bachelor  of  law,  or  doctor 
of  medicine ! 

On  the  side  of  practical  education,  it  should  be 
remarked  that  many  of  our  universities  have  followed 


60  University  Progress. 

the  examples  set  by  some  of  those  of  Germany,  Italy, 
Denmark  and  Sweden  —  that  of  establishino-  m  or 
connecting  with  them  schools  of  agriculture,  veterinary 
science,  engineering,  forestry,  and  even  proper  poly- 
technicums ;  while  at  least  one  institution,  by  which 
the  miiversity  title  has  been  assumed,  was  planned  so 
exclusively  with  reference  to  the  practical  pursuits  as 
to  have  been  incorporated  under  the  new  name  of 
"industrial  university." 

The  fine  arts  have  also  made  an  innovation  upon  the 
ancient  order  of  things,  by  establishing  themselves  as 
distinct  schools  in  some  of  our  universities ;  as,  for 
example,  in  Yale  College,  Michigan  University,  and 
Washington  University  at  St.  Louis. 

As  to  their  means  of  support,  but  few  of  our  Ameri- 
can universities  enjoy  large  permanent  endowments. 
Harvard  is  the  best  circumstanced  of  any  of  them,  in 
this  respect,  having  an  annual  income  of  something 
less  than  $200,000.  But  even  there  the  deficiency  is 
seriously  felt  and  bitterly  complained  of.  The  pro- 
fessors are  everywhere  in  America,  not  only  inade- 
quately paid,  as  a  consequence,  but,  what  is  worse, 
they  are,  of  necessity,  so  few  in  number  that  they  are 
doomed  to  a  perpetual  drudgery  of  instruction,  without 
the  possibility,  in  most  cases,  of  acquiring  the  most 
complete  mastery  of  the  mnny  branches  taught,  much 
less  of  devoting  any  share  of  their  time  to  those 
researches  and  investigations  by  which  the  circle  of 
human  knowledge  is  ever  enlarged. 


The  Present.  61 

Tins  poverty  of  our  univorsitios,  moreover,  iw  only 
less  lanientublo  in  tluit  it  {fives  rise  to  the  temptation 
to  a«l(i  to  tlie  numl)er  of  their  Ktudeiits  l»v  <lei'ra<lin2 
the  stanihinl  of  a»linissioii  and  graduation,  Kasy 
access,  short  coursen  of  study,  and  cheap  degrees,  are 
the  rule,  therefore.  Nor  do  they  eonfinu  their  lionors 
to  those  who  pretend  to  earn  them  by  completin<;  their 
superticial  courses  of  study.  On  the  contrary,  they 
are,  too  many  of  tliem,  open  to  bids  from  ahnost  any 
quarter,  and  are  in  the  almost  yearly  practice  of  ci»n- 
ferriuif  the  higliest  known  degrees  upon  men  dis- 
tinguished neither  for  higli  attainments,  high  charac- 
ter, nor  eminent  service  in  the  cause  of  education.  To 
8uch  absurd  lengths,  indeed,  has  this  practice  been 
carrie<l,  that  titles  are  no  longer  evidence  of  any  deti- 
nite  amount  of  attainments ;  and  men  of  sutficicnt 
learning  and  reputation  to  venture  so  severe  a  rebuke, 
not  unfrequently  do  themselves  the  honor  to  decline 
them.  On  this  head  I  repeat  what  I  have  said  in 
another  place,  namely,  that  it  ought  to  be  established 
as  a  principle,  to  which  all  acts  of  incorporation  should 
of  necessity  conform,  that  no  institution  shouM  have 
authority  to  confer  literary  degrees  representing  a 
hiffher  dejiree  of  attainments  and  culture  than  are 
actually  represented  by  its  own  educational  status. 


62  University  Progress. 


Ill 

From  the  foregoing  account  of  the  rise  and  present 
condition  of  universities  in  all  countries,  three  general 
conclusions  are  deducible,  to-wit :  (1)  that,  in  view  of 
the  long  period  of  centuries  since  its  origin,  university 
education  has  made  slow  progress,  and  is  still  in  a  very 
unsatisfactory  condition ;  (2)  that  the  spirit  of  progress 
has  been  exceedingly  active  in  many  quarters  during 
the  past  few  years ;  and  (3)  that  educational  leaders 
are,  nevertheless,  still  groping  their  way  towards  the 
realization  of  a  higher  ideal,  without  the  most  definite 
conception  of  what  that  ideal  is. 

In  Italy,  the  dominant  idea  for  some  time  possessing 
the  minds  of  reformers  has  been,  that  the  government 
is  attempting  to  maintain  too  many  universities,  and 
should  at  once  proceed  to  the  suppression  of  at  least 
half  of  them  and  the  concentration  of  all  the  means 
and  forces  available  for  education  upon  the  remainder. 
"  It  is  only  in  this  way,"  the  distinguished  Senator 
Matteucci,  late  minister  of  public  instruction,  said  to 
me  in  1867,  "  that  Italy  can  hope  to  make  her  uni- 
versities worthy  of  their  great  beginnings,  of  her  re- 
established unity,  and  of  her  yet  more  glorious 
futm'e."     More  definitely  stated,  it  was  the  purpose 


The  Futur:  63 

of  the  Itsilian  govcrniiu'iit,  at  the  date  of  the  hite  war, 
•\vliich  restored  Veiietia  to  the  kingdom,  to  nuuMtuiu 
hut  two  full  universities,  one  at  Turin,  and  the  other 
at  Na[)le.s ;  the  faculty  of  letters  in  which  was  also  to 
serve  the  purpose  of,  or  to  have  connected  therewith,  a 
superior  normal  school,  for  the  training  of  teachers  for 
tlic  ginnasi  and  licei  of  the  kingdom.  The  university 
of  Pisa  was  also  to  be  complete,  minus  the  faculty  of 
the  mathematical  and  physical  sciences,  which,  for  this 
portion  of  the  country,  was  to  be  located  at  Florence, 
in  connection  with  the  museum.  These  three  imiver- 
sities,  alone  in  all  the  kingdom,  were  to  have  power 
to  confer  degrees  in  letters,  and  the  first  two,  together 
with  the  faculty  of  Florence,  alone  to  confer  degrees 
in  the  sciences,  and,  through  their  normal  schools,  to 
train  teachers  for  the  scuole  tecniche.  Law  and  medi- 
cine were  to  have  faculties  at  Turin,  Pavia,  Genoa, 
Catania,  Modena,  Parma,  Pisa,  Naples,  Palermo,  and 
Bologna;  besides  which,  there  was  to  be  a  faculty  of 
law  at  Sassari,  and  one  of  medicine  at  Cagliari.  It 
was  the  half-formed  purpose,  moreover,  that  only  the 
dogmatic  part  of  theology  should  be  left  to  the  church 
seminaries ;  everything  else  requisite  being  taught  in 
the  universities,  whose  degrees  were  to  be  essential  to 
full  orders  in  the  clerical  profession. 

What  changes  in  this  plan,  if  any,  have  been  occa- 
sioned by  the  restoration  of  the  university  of  Padua 
—  and  1  am  pained  to  add,  by  the  recent  death  of 


64  Unwersity  Progiess. 

Senator  Matteucci,  who  was  the  moving  and  directing 
spirit  of  the  reforms  —  it  has  not  yet  transpired;  but 
the  evidences  are  gratifying  that  the  Italian  university 
is  not  only  to  recover  its  long-lost  distinction  and  glory, 
but  even  to  sm-pass  its  former  self  as  an  educating 
power. 

Great  Britian  is  drifting  slowly  towards  the  recon- 
struction of  her  lost  faculties  and  the  creation  of  new 
ones,  embracing  the  important  departments  of  physical 
and  natural  sciences,  philosophy,  and  art — -towards 
the  total  abolishment  of  those  odious  religious  tests, 
which  have  for  centuries  prevented  the  growth  of  her 
ancient  universities  by  the  practical  suppression  of 
that  freedom  of  the  intellect  and  conscience,  without 
which  a  true  university  is  impossible  —  and  towards 
the  opening  wide  of  the  portals  of  the  university  to 
whomsoever  may  approach  with  due  preparation. 

Germany,  so  long  in  the  vanguard,  and  so  in 
advance  of  all  other  countries  that  she  has  been 
thought  by  some  to  have  reached  the  ultima  ihule 
of  university  education,  has  broken  the  iron  mold  of 
the  middle  ages,  in  which  were  cast  the  inevitable  four 
faculties,  and  now  gives  signs  of  an  early  opening  of 
the  field  of  the  university,  with  impartial  conditions, 
to  every  class  of  studies  belonging  to  the  domain  of 
the  higher  education,  and  to  every  profession,  suitable 


Tfie  Future.  65 

preparation  for  whicli  domands  not  only  the  training 
of  the  gyiniiasiuin  or  tl\o  real  school, — which  is  the 
need  of  every  man,  re<ijardles8  of  condition  or  occu- 
pation in  life, —  but  also  a  profound,  thorough  and 
special  study  of  any  of  that  multitude  of  subjects 
which,  in  a  more  general  way,  are  proj)erly  included 
in  a  faculty  of  philosophy.  By  force  of  this  new  idea, 
that  law,  medicine  and  theology  are  no  longer  the 
only  "  learned  professions,"  political  philosophy,  as 
heretofore  stated,  has  already  set  up  its  own  faculty ; 
and  pharmacy,  veterimiry  science,  agriculture,  for- 
estry, etc.,  have  found  secondary  positions  within  the 
pale  of  the  university,  or  at  least  under  the  shadow 
of  its  walls. 

In  view  of  all  this  activity,  —  this  evident  purpose,, 
on  the  part  of  many  countries,  to  make  the  university 
something  larger  and  better  than  at  present, — it  is  a 
pity  that  there  should  not  have  been  formed  some 
more  definite  and  generally  accepted  idea  of  wherein 
the  present  universities  are  most  at  fault,  and  of  the 
means,  and  order  of  means,  necessary  to  make  them 
fultill  their  real  office  in  the  world.  Such  a  settlement 
of  the  nuiin  question  —  the  question  of  what  a  univer- 
sity ought  to  be  —  seems  to  me  practicable,  if  they 
who  discuss  it  will  come  to  its  consideration  in  the 
right  spirit.  And  I  will  not  conceal  the  fact  that  the 
actuating  motive  in  the  preparation  of  this  address  has 

5 


66  University  Progress. 

been  a  strong  desire,  not  nnmixed  witli  hope,  that, 
after  a  careful  study  of  the  universities  of  the  past  and 
present,  and  a  due  consideration  of  the  new  condi- 
tions to  be  met,  I  might  succeed  in  throwing  some 
additional  light  upon  the  now  misty  and  painfully 
uncertain  way. 

Whatever  the  origin  of  the  term  university,  and 
how  wide  soever  the  difference  in  actual  character  and 
condition  of  the  institutions  that  have  assumed  it,  this 
one  proposition  is  undeniable,  viz, :  that,  since  its  first 
educational  use,  it  has  ever  sought  to  represent  culture 
of  the  highest  hind,  to  whatever  age  or  country  the 
particular  institution  has  belonged.  This,  whether 
we  refer  to  the  ancient  universities  of  Italy,  France, 
England,  Spain  and  Portugal,  the  more  modern  ones 
of  these  countries  and  of  the  German  and  Scandina- 
vian states,  or  to  any  of  those  more  recently  founded, 
either  in  Europe  or  America.  There  is  no  educa- 
tional institution  above  it,  nor  has  there  been  from  the 
beginning.  Upon  this  phase  of  the  qualitative  ques- 
tion there  seems  never  to  have  been  any  difference 
of  opinion. 

It  is  the  quantitative  question  that  has  so  disturbed 
and  perplexed  the  educational  world  in  these  latter 
days.  This  same  problem  may  have  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  mediaeval  Europeans  for  a  time,^ 
while  the  university,  as  a  new  institution,  was  in  its 
formative  stage,—  but,  if  it  did,  a  practical  solution  of 


Hie  Future.  67 

it  was  soon  found.  Tlio  trlcium  nnd  quadrivium 
were  indispensable  to  all  who  assumed  to  be  eduoated 
men;  and  as  the  more  }>rivate,  and  the  monkish, 
schools,  where  these  branches  were  tan<j^ht  originally, 
were  apt  to  be  wanting  in  a  sutficient  number  of 
learned  and  commanding  teachers,  they  were,  of  neces- 
sity, constituted  a  part  of  the  university  curriculum. 
This  insured  the  establishment  of  a  high  faculty  of 
general  culture,  the  character  and  range  of  whose 
studios  of  course  changed  with  the  progress  of 
knowledge. 

But  it  was  necessary  that  there  should  also  be  schools, 
somewhere,  for  diffusing  such  knowledge  as  was  then 
possessed  concerning  man  and  his  individual  rela- 
tions to  the  material  world,  concerning  man  and  his 
relations  to  his  fellow  men,  and  concerning  man  in 
his  relations  to  his  Maker.  Hence  arose  schools 
of  medicine,  of  law,  and  of  theology.  These  also 
required  the  concentration  of  learned  men  competent 
to  teach  in  them ;  and  since  the  association  of  men 
of  learning,  though  specially  devoted  to  ditferent 
branches  of  knowledge,  is  ever  both  pleasant  and 
profitable ;  since  they  who  study  are  advantage<l  in 
like  manner  by  frequent  intercourse  ;  and  as  economy 
of  time,  forces  and  material  would  be  })romoted 
thereby,  without  counteracting  disadvantage  of  any 
sort,  these  schools  of  the  professions  were  naturally 
established  as  faculties   in  the  same  place  with  the 


68  University  Progress. 

faculty  of  general  culture  —  thus  completing  the  then 
narrow  circle  of  human  knowledge. 

It  is  not  strange  that  such  a  cluster  of  schools  should 
have  received  the  title  of  universitas  (all  together), 
nor  that  the  scores  of  universities  which  succeeded 
those  first  examples,  being  surrounded  by  the  same 
general  conditions,  were  cast  in  the  same  mold.  Kor 
is  it  surprising  that  institutions  like  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, from  which  the  professional  faculties  in  course 
of  time  fell  away,  in  obedience  to  the  superior  attrac- 
tive force  of  a  great  neighboring  city,  with  extraor- 
dinary court  and  hospital  facilities,  should  have 
retained  a  title  once,  but  no  longer,  appropriate. 

Perhaps,  also,  it  should  fail  to  excite  our  surprise 
that  the  ancient  universities  should  have  continued  in 
their  accustomed  work  of  the  exclusive  cultivation  of 
the  humanities  and  the  three  professions  above  named 
long  after  the  sciences  had  gained  recognition  as 
highly  important  fields  of  knowledge  and  excellent 
means  of  mental  discipline,  and  even  after  the  progress 
of  human  development  and  scientific  discovery  had  led 
to  the  creation  of  numerous  professions  no  less  intel- 
lectual, profound  and  difficult  than  the  canonical  and 
time-honored  law,  medicine  and  theology.  It  is  in  the 
nature  of  institutions,  especially  of  old  ones,  to  be  con- 
servative, and  the  rigid  mold  of  the  social  ideas  of 
those  times  could  hardly  allow  to  new  professions  a 
ready  and  undisputed  admission  to  the  places  of  high 


The  Future.  69 

honor  so  long  exclusively  enjoyed  by  the  favored 
three. 

On  the  other  hund,  whether,  in  view  ot*  the  general 
lack  of  the  highest  culture  in  America,  the  ignorance 
of  even  many  of  our  educational  leaders  of  the  systems 
and  institutions  of  other  countries  more  advanced,  and 
the  unparalleled  amhitictn  and  conceit  of  our  jKJople, — 
I  say,  whether,  in  view  of  these  facts,  it  be  a  matter 
of  surprise  or  not  that  scores  of  our  country  schools  — 
and  very  poor  ones  at  that  —  have  been  incorporated 
by  our  state  legislatures  as  "  universities,"  it  is  certainly 
a  just  cause  of  reproach  that  this  wrong  to  the  cause 
of  education  has  been,  and  continues  to  be,  actually 
perpetrated,  and  that,  up  to  this  moment,  no  concerted 
or  organized  eifort  of  any  sort  has  been  made  to  pre- 
vent a  continuance  of  the  evil  by  the  diffusion  of  just 
sentiments  and  opinions  upon  the  subject.  Our 
aspiring  schools  might  at  least  be  commended  to  the 
wholesome  example  of  old  Harvard  and  Yale,  both  of 
which  modestly  assumed  the  title  of  "  college ''  at  the 
beginning  —  althougli  then,  as  now,  the  foremost 
schools  of  high  culture  in  the  new  world  —  and  have 
not  yet  deemed  it  necessary  to  ask  for  a  change  of 
title,  now  that  they  have  each  assumed  the  general 
features  of  a  university  by  the  addition  of  professional 
faculties  and  other  schools  to  the  academical  depart- 
ment. 

But  slow  and  faulty  as  has  been  the  past,   with 


10  University  Progress. 

these  data  before  us,  —  the  evident  original  intent  to 
make  the  university  a  place  of  the  highest  and  most 
universal  culture,  and  the  manifest  tendency,  on  the 
part  of  the  most  advanced  countries,  to  remold  their 
universities,  in  this  respect,  after  the  original  ideal, — 
it  might  be  assumed,  in  the  absence  of  any  conflicting 
testimony  or  weighty  objection,  that  elevation  and 
expansion  are  to  be,  and  ought  to  be,  the  watchword 
of  their  future  real  progress.  Let  us  see,  therefore, 
whether  there  be  valid  and  substantial  objections  to 
this  line  of  policy. 

Of  course,  no  scholar  will  question  the  propriety  of 
elevating  the  standard  of  university  education  to  the 
highest  practicable  limit.  But  then  there  is,  unfortu- 
nately, a  very  wide  difference  as  to  what  that  practi- 
cable limit  is.  If  we  are  to  judge  them  by  their 
actual  deeds,  a  majority  claim  that  the  university 
must  gauge  its  standard  down  to  a  correspondence 
with  those  of  the  schools  below  them.  "  Unless  we 
do  this,"  say  they,  "  we  shall  get  no  students ;  all  our 
preparations  will  avail  us  nothing,  and  we  shall  lose 
the  early  glory  of  a  great  success"  —  which  they  are 
slirewd  enough  to  see  is  measured  by  the  pubhc, 
ignorant  of  the  true  office  of  a  university,  not  by  the 
high  range  of  its  studies  and  the  number  and  value 
of  its  contributions  to  the  intellectual  progress  of  the 
world,  but  by  the  number  of  students  whose  names 
are  found  in  its  catalogue. 


The  Future.  71 

It  is  this  lack  ot*  a  true  and  noblo  aml)ition  on  the 
part  of  some  of  our  university  authorities  —  this  lack 
of  loyalty  to  the  sacred  interests  they  assume  to  repre- 
sent—  this  shameful  readiness  to  impose  U|xjn  an 
uninformed  public  by  putting  nunJjct'H  in  the  fore- 
ground and  claiming  consideration  on  their  account, — 
it  is  this  false  dealing  with  the  real  interests  of  educa- 
tion in  America  that  is  its  chief  curse  to-day.  It  is  a 
ground  of  encouragement,  however,  that  here  and 
there  are  to  be  found  educators  and  earnest  general 
workers  in  this  field,  who  hold  that  the  university  is 
not  to  be  the  governed,  but  the  gu^^erning,  power  — • 
that  the  standards  of  the  common  schools  of  the  country 
are  not  to  determine  the  grade  of  our  university  edu- 
cation but  are  themselves  to  be  determined  by  it  — 
that  the  university  is  not  to  be  elevated  to  a  higher 
plane  by  the  uplifting  of  the  schools  below  it,  as 
islands  are  sometimes  raised  in  the  sea  by  subter- 
ranean forces,  but  is  itself  the  only  power  by  which 
tljey  are  to  be  raised  to  a  higher  level. 

The  first  effect  of  the  substitution  of  higher  for  the 
present  low  standards  of  admission  and  gra«luation  in 
our  universities  would  undoubtedly  be  a  diminution 
of  numbers,  since  it  would  necessitate  the  transfer  of 
a  large  number  of  half-prepared,  or  wholly  unprepared, 
students  from  their  halls  to  the  district  and  high 
schools,  where  they  belong.  But,  as  a  secondary 
efi'ect,  it  would  also  lead  to  a  conversion  of  many 


Y2  University  Progress. 

unsuccessful,  pretending  universities  into  prosperous 
high  schools  and  colleges,  to  the  greatly  enhanced 
value  of  the  degrees  conferred  by  the  universities,  and 
an  increased  demand  for  them,  on  the  part  of  students 
the  most  worthy,  and,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  to 
the  stimulation  and  improvement  of  the  entire  system 
of  popular  education. 

I  believe  that  these  several  conclusions  are  incontro- 
vertible, and  that,  together,  they  constitute  a  suflScient 
warrant  for  the  declaration  that  elevation  in  grade  is 
the  first  important  condition  in  the  progress  of  univer- 
sity education. 

If  our  existing  universities,  state  and  denomina- 
tional, for  any  reason  cannot  yet  rise  to  the  high  level 
of  a  true  university,  they  ought  at  least  to  rise  out  of 
their  present  competition  with  the  colleges  and  high- 
schools  of  the  country,  whose  work  they  unnecessarily 
duplicate,  notwithstanding  the  need  is  so  crying  for  a 
work  the  colleges  and  high-schools  cannot  perform. 
If  they  cannot  do  even  this,  then  are  they  not  so 
much  as  incipient  universities,  and  we  have  a  moral 
right  to  demand  of  them,  in  the  name  of  common 
honesty,  that  they  relinquish  their  false  title  and  hence- 
forth claim  to  be  what  they  really  are. 

Over  the  state  institutions,  which  exist  not  for  the 
church,  but  for  the  citizen,  and  which  are  sustained 
by  the  whole  body  of  citizens,  we  have  also  unlimited 


I 


The  Future.  73 

lofjal  control,  and  arc  in  duty  bound  to  so  mold  and 
niana«]^o  them  as  most  eHuctually  to  promote  the 
advanceinent  of  learning  and  the  l>etter  culture  of  the 
people.  When  pro])erly  co-ordered,  they  will  form  a 
complete  and  harmonious  system ;  embracinjjj  the 
primary  school,  the  grammar  school,  the  high-scliool, 
and  the  university,  each  higher  resting  upon  the  next 
lower  member  of  the  series. 

On  the  basis  of  such  a  system,  the  university  faculty 
of  philosophy  ought,  if  possible,  to  begin  about  where 
the  college  now  ends.  As  a  practical  question,  how- 
ever, it  may  hardly  be  possible  to  raise  even  the  best 
of  our  universities  to  this  level  at  once.  But  it  cer- 
tainly is  practicable  to  abolish  the  university  "  prepar- 
atory department,"  wherever  found  ;  leaving  the  work 
now  done  by  it  to  be  performed  by  the  grammar  school 
and  "academy."  More  than  tliis,  it  is  ])ossible  to  so 
adjust  tlie  relations  between  our  best  universities  and 
the  high-schools  and  colleges  as  to  leave  to  tliese  last 
a  portion  of  the  work  now  done  by  the  university 
academical  department ;  which,  l)eing,  in  such  event, 
raised  to  the  rank  of  a  faculty  of  philosophy,  begin- 
ning where  the  last  year  of  the  most  advanced  high- 
school,  or  the  junior  year  of  tlie  ordinary  college,  now 
ends,  and  ctirryingthe  student  from  that  point  forward, 
one,  three,  or  more  years,  according  as  he  may  aim  at 
attainments  properly  represented  by  the  baccalaureate, 
the  master's  degree,  or  the  doctorate,  would  thus 
become  the  nucleus  of  a  true  university. 


T4  University  Progress. 

Having  done  this,  if  the  state  would  then  confine 
the  degree-conferring  authority  —  at  least  in  the  case 
of  all  degrees  above  that  of  bachelor  —  to  the  univer- 
sity, and  put  a  stop  to  the  prevailing  practice  of  indis- 
criminately conferring  degrees  "  in  course  "  and  hon- 
orary degrees,  it  would,  by  these  several  measures, 
insure  to  a  very  considerable  class  of  our  more  ambi- 
tious students  the  advantage  of  two  or  three  additional 
years  of  study  and  instruction  in  the  higher  ranges  of 
science,  letters  and  philosophy,  as  well  as  suitable 
recognition  for  attainments  actually  made,  and  so 
still  further  strengthen  the  suffering  cause  of  superior 
education. 

It  now  remains  to  inquire  whether  the  expmision  of 
the  university,  by  the  incorporation  of  new  faculties, 
be  also  a  means  of  true  progress. 

On  this  question,  likewise,  after  the  most  careful 
consideration  and  no  little  observation  in  all  countries 
where  the  university  at  present  exists,  I  must  take  the 
affirmative.  I  am  aware  tliat  there  are  some  distin- 
guished leaders  who  believe  that  such  expansion  is 
likely  to  result  in  the  utter  dissolution  of  the  univer- 
sity. But  do  not  these  persons  take  counsel  of  their 
fears,  rather  than  of  their  reason  ?  Is  it  not  true  that 
since  a  majority  of  the  world's  universities  were 
founded,  each  with  its  three  professional  faculties,  new 
professions  have   sprung  up   and    gained    universal 


The  Future.  75 

recoffiiition,  the  excluftion  <»f  which  would  bo  no  lesfl 
unjust  and  absurd  than  tlie  expulsion  of  any  of  those 
already  einl>racod  {  If  not,  what  moan  the  numerous 
hi^ii  schools  of  art,  of  architecture,  of  en<^ineeriiig,  of 
mining  and  metallurgy,  and  <jf  that  most  complex  and 
difficult  of  all  the  professions  —  agriculture  —  a  com- 
plete preparatit)n  for  which  recpiircs  a  knowledge  of 
the  whole  range  of  the  sciences  ?  What  mean  those 
magniticent  clusters  of  professional  schools,  the  poly- 
technicums  of  Paris,  Zurich,  Carlsruhe,  Hanover, 
Munich,  Berlin,  Copenhagen,  Stockholm,  Ilelsingfors, 
Saint  Petersburg  and  Boston,  if  law,  medicine  and 
theology  are  the  only  professions  \  Or,  if  it  be  insisted 
by  the  ultra-fastidious  that  all  these  are  still  mere 
occupations^  too  redolent  of  the  barn-yard,  the  furnace, 
the  forge  and  the  factory,  to  be  admitted  into  the  daily 
company  of  the  more  refined  professions,  so  long  hon- 
ored with  the  title  of  learned,  what  shall  be  said  of 
the  superior  normal  schools,  to  be  found  in  so  many 
of  the  most  enlightened  countries,  with  their  high 
Btandards  of  admission  and  protracted  courses  of 
study  \  and  wluit  of  statesmanship,  that  new  profes- 
Bion,  almost  universal  quackery  in,  or  rather  outside 
of,  which  is  the  present  political  curse  of  this  and  all 
other  countries  ? 

It  is  useless  to  multiply  words.     The  Chinese  wall 
of  exclusivism,  that  has  so  long  shut  in  the  narrow 


76  University  Progress. 

little  kingdom  of  the  university,  is  destined  to  be 
pulled  down.  The  work  of  demolition  is  already 
going  on.  The  question  is  no  longer  whether  new 
territory  shall  be  added  :  that  is  a  foregone  conclusion. 
The  only  vital  question  is,  To  what  extent  shall  the 
annexation  proceed,  and  upon  what  conditions  ? 

Need  there  be  any  limit  at  all  ?  and,  if  so,  what 
shall  the  limit  be  ? 

It  is  clear  that  there  must  be  definite  conditions  of 
some  sort,  else  the  central  idea  of  the  university  would 
be  lost,  and  the  vast  aggregation  of  heterogeneous 
elements  composing  the  whole  fall  in  pieces,  for  want 
of  a  central  harmonizing  and  unitizing  power.  But 
this  central  power  once  assured,  I  see  no  sutficient 
reason  why  the  university  may  not  also  embrace  facul- 
ties of  normal  instruction,  of  political  and  social  science, 
of  agriculture,  of  mining  and  metallurgy,  of  mechan- 
ical and  civil  engineering,  of  architecture,  of  commerce 
and  navigation,  of  naval  and  military  science,  and  of 
the  fine  arts.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  economy  of 
means  essential  to  the  formation  and  support  of  great 
laboratories,  cabinets,  museums  and  libraries,  econ- 
omy of  instructional  force,  the  stimulation  resulting 
from  the  presence,  in  the  same  general  institution,  of 
large  numbers  of  professors  and  students,  and  the  lib- 
eralizing influence  of  frequent  association  with  persons 
devoted  to  different  studies  and  aiming  at  different 
pursuits,  —  all  these  are  powerful  reasons  why  the 


The  Future.  77 

nnivorsity  should  ombnico  the  sovoml  professions 
named,  together  with  yet  others  a«  tiwt  as  they  attain 
to  the  dignity  of  professions. 

What,  now,  is  this  central  power,  whose  office  sliall 
be  the  hokling  of  this  chister  of  schools  togetlier  in  a 
complete  and  harmonions  system,  even  as  the  celestial 
bodies  which  constitute  the  astral  systems  of  the  uni- 
verse are  held  in  their  places,  warmed  and  illumined, 
each  by  their  own  central  sun  ?  It  is  none  other  than  a 
high  faculty  of  philosophy  —  that  fountain-head  of 
intellectual  life  and  universal  knowledge,  to  which  the 
world  has  been  so  greatly  iiulebted  in  the  past,  and  to 
which  it  must  continue  to  look  in  the  future  for 
enlightenment,  stimulation  and  guidance.  But,  even 
more  than  in  the  past,  it  must  be  made  a  faculty  in 
which  not  knowledjje  so  much  as  the  science  of  knowl- 
edge,  not  facts  and  events  so  much  iis  the  ])hilosophy 
of  facts  and  events,  shall  be  taught,  and  in  which 
science,  letters,  philosophy  and  art  shall  be  profoundly 
and  unselfishly  studied. 

Plant  in  the  centre  of  your  university,  and  there 
resolutely  maintain,  such  a  faculty  of  philosophy  as 
this  ;  call  into  its  service  men  of  learning,  genius  and 
})ower  of  inspiration ;  and  require  of  all  who  would 
enter  any  of  the  various  professional  faculties  that 
they  sliall  matriculate  in  the  unii'ersity  and  give  at 
least  a  liberal  minimuni  of  time  to  important  general 
Studies  in  this  its  central  faculty,  as  a  condition  of 
graduation,  whether  in  law,  agriculture,  engineering. 


78  University  Progress, 

medicine,  or  aught  else.  Do  this,  and  I  care  not  how 
many  professional  schools  of  high  grade  are  clustered 
around  it.  The  greater  the  number  the  more  com 
pletely  will  they  all  together  constitute  a  true  univer- 
sity ;  while  each  one  of  the  cluster,  by  virtue  of  the 
union,  will  rise  to  a  higher  level  and  the  more  per 
fectly  fulfill  its  own  particular  mission. 

Whether  the  faculty  of  philosophy  may,  with  advan- 
tage, be  divided,  as  in  the  academies  of  France,  and 
the  universities  of  Belgium,  Holland  and  Italy,  and  as 
in  at  least  one  instance*  in  this  country,  in  such  man- 
ner as  to  group  those  studies  which  more  properly 
belong  to  the  domain  of  philosophy  and  letters  in 
one,  and  those  which  belong  to  science  and  art  in  the 
other,  is  a  secondary  question  that  I  will  not  stop  to 
discuss  at  this  time. 

It  remains  to  be  urged  that  the  professional  faculties 
must  be  organized  under  the  inspiration  of  a  like  pur- 
pose to  make  them  tit  agencies  of  preparation  for  the 
special  interests  they  may  be  intended  to  represent. 
Superficiality  is  criminal  where  thoroughness  is  possi- 
ble ;  and  public  sentiment  should  rigidly  hold  all 
schools  that  assume  to  qualify  men  to  deal  profession- 
ally with  the  important  interests  of  the  individual  and 
of  society  to  a  full  and  faithful  performance  of  their 
respective  functions. 

As  to  the  constitution  and  organization  of  the  pro 
fessoriate,  it  appears  to  me  that  but  little  improvement 

•    The  University  of  Wisconsin. 


TJie  Future.  79 

is  likely  to  he  made  very  soon  upon  the  adinirahle 
German  system  ;  the  main  features  of  whicli  are  very 
sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  he  introduced  in  all  other 
countries. 

There  is,  however,  one  other  respect  in  which  there 
seems  likely  to  be  a  radical  change  in  the  university  — 
in  the  extension  of  its  privileges  to  women.  The  grow- 
ing recognition  of  the  importance  of  better,  and  the 
best  possible,  facilities  for  their  education,  together 
with  the  impracticability  of  founding  and  maintaining 
two  sets  ol  institutions,  one  for  male,  and  the  other  for 
female  students,  has  already  constrained  many  private, 
and  a  few  state,  institutions  —  notable  among  which 
last  are  the  universities  of  Paris,  Zurich,  Vienna, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Iowa  —  to  throw  open  their 
doors  to  them  more  or  less  freely.  And,  unless  the 
experience  of  these  few  should  cause  a  revulsion  in 
sentiment,  and  a  return,  on  their  part,  to  the  former 
exclusive  system,  one  hazards  nothing  in  predicting 
that  the  example  thus  set  by  them  will  be  followed, 
in  course  of  time,  by  all  the  rest. 

If  now  the  conclusions  reached  upon  the  several 
questions  involved  be  correct, — and  a  full  and  free 
discussion  of  them  is  cordially  invited,  —  may  we  not 
assume  that  the  university  of  the  future  ought  to  be, 
and  is  destined  to  be,  not  only  a  higher,  but  a  more 
comprehensive  institution  than  the  highest  and  most 
complete  of  those  now  in  existence  —  an  institution 


80  TJni'dersity  Progress. 

high  enough  to  embrace  the  utmost  limits  of  actual 
intellectual  achievement,  and  broad  enough  to  include 
every  real  profession  —  an  institution  fulfilling,  as  has 
never  yet  been  done,  its  legitimate  three-fold  office,  of 
giving  the  highest  instruction  in  every  department, 
and  alone  conferring  the  higher  degrees  therein  ;  of 
extending  the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge  by 
means  of  research  and  investigation  ;  and  of  exerting 
a  constantly  stimulating  and  elevating  influence  upon 
every  class  of  schools  of  lower  grade  ? 

The  realization  of  this  ideal  university  will  require 
large  sums  of  money.  Its  foundation  must  be  reck- 
oned by  millions,  its  professors  by  hundreds,  and  its 
means  of  illustration  and  experiment  be  extensive  in 
every  department.  But  the  results  upon  our  whole 
system  of  education,  and  upon  the  intellectual  pro 
gress  of  the  people,  would  be  beyond  calculation. 

A  true  university  is  the  leading  want  of  American 
education.  And  I  venture  to  say  to  this  numerous  and 
influential  body  of  American  teachers,  no  subject  of 
greater  importance  can  be  urged  upon  your  attention, 
or  by  you  upon  the  attention  of  the  country.  If  t  be 
impossible,  at  the  present,  to  secure  the  founding  of 
more  than  one  such  institution  in  America,  let  us  nei- 
ther take  rest  nor  allow  rest  to  the  country  until  at 
least  that  one  shall  stand,  unique  and  grand,  before 
the  world  —  a  fit  illustration  of  American  freedom 
and  American  aspirations  for  the  progress  of  the  race. 


2^4LM     5 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 

MAR  24:  1343 

SEP  2  3  13« 
JUN9    1949 

~Ufi     5  1353| 

«£C  D  COL  iiti. 

"'    61911 


Form  L-9 
2ll>n-l,'42(85J!l) 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNU 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 

LIBRARY 


LA 

185 

H85a 


Hoyt  - 
Address  on 
university- 
progress. 


